“EU sues IBM, developer of new digital immigration system”

FT report “Legal action due to delay in system development, failure to respond to authorities’ warnings, etc.”

(London = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Ji-yeon = It has been reported that the European Union (EU) has filed a lawsuit against American tech company IBM, French tech company Atos, and Italian defense company Leonardo over the disruption of the new digital immigration system (EES) that caused chaos at airports.

The British daily Financial Times (FT) reported on the 9th (local time) that the EU LISA (EU LISA), the organization that oversees the system, filed a lawsuit in the court of Estonia, the agency's host country, claiming that a consortium of these companies repeatedly failed to meet deadlines and failed to comply with warnings and fines issued by the agency.

EES is a system that replaces entry screening with digital registration, such as fingerprint verification and face photography, when non-EU nationals make short-term visits to the 29 countries of the European Schengen zone. It has been gradually expanded and went into full implementation in April this year.

However, due to technical problems such as fingerprint and facial recognition failures in various places, the immigration screening time increased significantly, resulting in long waiting times and congestion.

In a report published in July this year, EU LISA confirmed that it had filed a lawsuit in an Estonian court in December 2025, saying, "Due to multiple delays in the provision of EES by the contracting consortium, the agency has invoked available legal remedies to protect its financial interests."

Written documents exchanged between the two sides over the years show that the two sides have had several conflicts, and in the meantime, costs have increased.

EU LISA explained to the FT that “this lawsuit concerns delays in the timing of system development delivery and has nothing to do with EES operations.” IBM, Leonardo and Athos did not respond to inquiries.