Italian bidder Larimart asks General Court to annul EDA CBRN mask award

The Italian company Larimart SpA has asked the General Court of the European Union to annul the European Defence Agency’s award of a framework contract for CBRN masks, arguing that a British subcontractor barred from EU defence tenders was admitted indirectly. The action, registered as Case T-483/26, was brought on 31 July 2026 and is published in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, of 19 October 2026 (C/2026/5231).

The contested act is the European Defence Agency (EDA) decision of 1 June 2026, letter No EDAC202605019, which awarded the multi-supplier cascade framework contract for Tender 25.CAP.NP.PA-1268 ‘CBRN Equipment – LOT 1 “CBRN Masks”’. Larimart SpA, based in Rome and represented by lawyers P. Cavasola, T. Masone and G. Sorrentini, is challenging the award only insofar as the first and third positions in the ranking order went to Celops Srl (Belgium) and ARLE BV (Netherlands), which it says should have been found inadmissible. Italian is the language of the case.

The dispute lands in a procurement field where the General Court has already shown willingness to strike down EDA awards: in its judgment of 1 July 2026 in Case T-105/24, Airbus Defence and Space and Marlink Events v EDA (C/2026/4295), the court annulled an EDA award decision of 12 December 2023 in tender 23.ISE.JP.001 and ordered compensation for the consortium’s loss of opportunity.

Two pleas against the award

Larimart SpA relies on two pleas in law. The first alleges infringement of the tender provisions on access to the procedure and on subcontracting (Sections 2.6 and 3.5.1 of the Tender Specifications), manifest error of assessment, and breach of the principles of transparency, stare decisis, legitimate expectations and good faith.

The second plea alleges infringement of the subcontracting provisions (Sections 2.6 and 3.5.3) and breach of the principles of the autonomy of tenders and of competition.

The British subcontractor at the centre

The applicant’s core argument is that Section 3.5.1 of the Tender Specifications excludes operators from third countries from participating, save where specific international agreements apply — and that no such agreement applies to the United Kingdom. On that reading, Avon UK, as a non-EU operator, cannot take part either directly or indirectly through subcontracting, and Article 176 of the applicable Financial Regulation does not derogate from that restriction.

Larimart SpA adds that admitting a non-EU subcontractor who could not bid directly empties the access restriction of effect, and that EDA committed a manifest error by failing to identify the problem of its own motion. It further argues that Avon UK is not a mere original equipment manufacturer but the entity concentrating the industrial, production, technological, qualification and certification capacities needed to make the masks, while Celops Srl and ARLE BV have no industrial structure in the sector. Two competing tenders from the same de facto supplier, it says, deprive the bids of autonomy and turn the cascade mechanism into a purely formal device.

What the court is asked to order

The form of order sought by Larimart SpA is threefold:

• annul the EDA decision of 1 June 2026 insofar as the first and third ranking positions were awarded to Celops Srl and ARLE BV;
• order EDA to produce in court all requests for participation and the full tenders submitted by those two companies, including their statements on compliance with the Tender Specifications and on subcontracting, and the documents later supplied to verify the declared requirements;
• order EDA to pay the costs.

The outcome matters beyond this contract. If the General Court accepts that third-country capacity cannot be imported through a subcontractor, EDA and other EU defence buyers would have to screen supply chains, not just bidders, when applying access rules — a test of how far the Union’s restrictions on non-EU participation in defence procurement actually reach.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C series, No C/2026/5231, 19 October 2026, section I, p. 1 (official reference: C/2026/5231).