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The Papillon flight school won a lawsuit in the first instance over the delivery of corona masks. The federal government had refused 1.3 million euros because of alleged defects.
Gersfeld/Bonn – Dozens of companies are suing the federal government over masks ordered but not paid for during the pandemic. After five years, the operators of the Papillon flight school on the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön have now received their first verdict: the federal government must pay for what it has ordered.
However, Papillon managing director Andreas Schubert's joy is still limited: “This is a judgment of the first instance. It is not yet legally binding, the federal government has lodged an appeal,” he told our newspaper. But the fact is: The Bonn Regional Court decided that there was no reason for the federal government to withdraw from the deal due to quality defects and that no subsequent delivery was necessary.
Unpaid Corona masks: Federal government loses lawsuit against flight school
According to information from our newspaper, the verdict is also based on an expert report that certified an acceptable error rate of 1.5 percent. The defendant, i.e. the ministry, “was not able to provide the proof that was incumbent upon it that the… masks are defective”.
For the federal government, mask procurement is increasingly becoming a financial disaster during the pandemic. Under the then Health Minister Jens Spahn, now the Union parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, billions of masks were ordered, but only some of them were paid for. Apparently the need had been estimated far too high.
The Rhön-based company Papillon – like many other companies – took part in a so-called “open house procurement process” run by the then federal government in spring 2020. Protective masks were in short supply: every supplier who was able to procure more than 25,000 FFP2 masks should receive a fixed price of 4.50 euros. The response from companies was great: 738 contracts were concluded.
Through a cooperation with a flight school in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million, Andreas Schubert and Boris Kiauka from the Rhön region had access to mask producers in Asia. They organized around 250,000 FFP2 and KN95 masks, which were delivered on time in May 2020. However, the Ministry of Health subsequently refused to pay around 1.3 million euros on the grounds that the goods delivered did not meet European standards or were defective. The Rhön entrepreneurs disputed this and filed a lawsuitwhich has now been decided in their favor.
With the stage victory, there is legitimate hope for the entrepreneurs that the Bonn Higher Regional Court will follow the decision in the next instance and that the process, which has now lasted more than five years, will be concluded. Spahn's mask deals could still cost taxpayers dearly. According to information from Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) in the budget committee, about last year “Mirror” reported that the value of the various court cases surrounding mask deals amounts to 2.3 billion euros plus interest.
Another trial began at the regional court in Bonn on Wednesday (June 10). The Hamburg company Pure Fashion Agency is demanding almost half a billion euros from the federal government.
