BRITTANY Ferries has been ordered to pay rival ferry operator DFDS £40,000 in legal costs following its failed attempt to bring a judicial review against the government’s decision to award Jersey’s ferry services to the Danish firm.
The Island’s Court of Appeal rejected Brittany Ferries legal bid – which alleged “procedural unfairness and apparent bias” in the selection process – in January this year after deciding it would not have a “realistic prospect of success”.
A pan-island selection process collapsed in October when Guernsey revealed that it had decided to appoint Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder.
DFDS won the subsequent Jersey-only tender, with Brittany Ferries launching legal action at the end of last year.
Following the failed legal bid, Jersey’s government and DFDS both applied for indemnity costs – heavier costs applied when the court wishes to “mark its displeasure at the conduct of the unsuccessful party in relation to the litigation” – but the Court of Appeal decided against awarding these.
Judges did agree that both parties should have their legal costs covered paid on a standard basis and ordered Brittany Ferries to pay £40,000 to DFDS within 28 days. The sum of the government’s legal costs was not included in the judgment, which was handed down on 1 April but only recently published.
The appeal court found there was “nothing substantial” in Brittany Ferries’ bid and said that the French company’s application was also “not brought promptly”.
They also suggested that the case was commercially motivated.
“Brittany Ferries competed for a commercial tender and were unsuccessful,” the court said in its judgment. “The application for judicial review should be seen against the background of its commercial interest.”
