United Parcel Service, Inc., the global logistics giant which owns UPS Airlines (5X, Louisville International), filed a lawsuit in the General Court of the European Union on December 29, 2017, seeking to recover EUR1.74 billion (USD2.16 billion) plus interest and tax from the European Commission for blocking its takeover of then rival TNT in 2013. The transaction would have included TNT Airways (Liège).
"The applicant [UPS] claims that the Decision [to block the TNT takeover] is tainted with serious breaches of rules of law that are intended to confer rights on UPS. According to the applicant, each breach individually underpinned the Decision and prevented the applicant from acquiring TNT and from materialising the benefits associated with that proposed transaction," the American firm argued in the filing.
According to UPS, the amount it is suing the European Commission for represents potential gains it would have recorded, as calculated by independent third parties, had the deal gone through. The lawsuit is filed under Article 340 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) which establishes the European Union's contractual and non-contractual liability for its decisions.
The case, T-834/17, has not yet been come under the scrutiny of the General Court's advocate general, the first step before the judges' ruling.
The EC blocked the EUR5.2 billion proposed takeover in 2013 arguing that it would harm competition and negatively impact consumers. The decision has already been successfully challenged by UPS in a separate case. On March 7, 2017, the General Court annulled the EC's ruling, mostly on procedural reasons, finding that the authorities did not communicate its econometric model properly to UPS, thus infringing the company's right to defence. The European Commission appealed against this verdict with proceedings still ongoing.
TNT was acquired in 2015 by UPS's main competitor, FedEx Express, without any objections from the EC.
