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🇬🇧 United Kingdom /Crime & Justice

Palantir loses Swiss magazine legal challenge over reporting on failed contracts

From The Guardian · () English

Translated from English, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Outcome reported
  • US tech firm Palantir lost a legal challenge against a Swiss magazine over its reporting on rejected government contracts.
  • The company sued to force Republik to publish rejoinders to articles detailing its failure to secure Swiss government deals, but the court only allowed a response to a single passage.
  • Palantir was ordered to pay most of the court costs and legal expenses, with the ruling seen as a victory for the independent magazine and research collective WAV.

The US technology company Palantir has lost a significant legal battle against the Swiss independent magazine Republik. Palantir had sued to force the magazine to publish its responses to articles that detailed how the Swiss government rejected the firm’s services. However, the Zurich commercial court dismissed 22 out of 23 of Palantir's counterstatement requests.

It was a lot of work and time invested. After four months waiting for a verdict, it’s good to have such a ruling now.

— Jennifer SteinerJennifer Steiner, co-founder of WAV and one of the investigators, commented on the ruling and the resources the case consumed.

The court found that only a single passage in one article warranted a published response from the company. The articles in question, published in December after a year-long investigation by Republik and the Swiss research collective WAV, focused on Palantir's inability to secure any government contracts in Switzerland despite being present in the country for nearly four years. This "failure narrative" prompted Palantir's legal action.

The investigation had gained traction in Europe and the UK, prompting questions from British MPs and officials in other governments about the necessity of Palantir's technology. Palantir, however, stated that the Swiss government was not a major target for its business growth in the region. Journalists involved noted that they had interviewed company executives and provided a full list of questions before publication, but Palantir demanded a detailed rebuttal that extended beyond the scope of their investigation.

We invested a great deal of effort into this case, and we are very pleased with the outcome.

— Balz OertliBalz Oertli, a journalist with the WAV research collective, expressed satisfaction with the court's decision.

Swiss media law permits subjects of a story a right of reply, but it must be concise and factually relevant. The court ordered Palantir to cover 95% of the SFr9,000 ($11,000) in court costs and pay Republik SFr9,900 in legal expenses. Jennifer Steiner, co-founder of WAV, expressed relief at the ruling after a four-month wait, highlighting the significant resources the case consumed for the smaller outlets. The only concession to Palantir was the right to publish a short counterstatement disputing the claim that its Foundry software was developed for US counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We welcome that the Zurich commercial court confirmed our right

— PalantirPalantir's statement reported by the Financial Times regarding the court's decision.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by The Guardian in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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