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The
German company accuses the Finnish defense forces of breaching
Finnish and EU competition rules with a ten-year agreement, made
in March jointly with Sweden, to buy assault rifles and other
handguns from the Finnish arms maker Sako Ltd, owned by Italy's
Beretta.
"The direct procurement in question means that the Finnish
Defense Forces may not invite tenders for the procurement of
handguns until 2053 and may acquire them from Sako," Heckler &
Koch writes in its complaint, referring to three seven-year
extension options until 2053 in the agreement between the
defense forces and Sako.
Both Finland and Sweden need to renew the standard weaponry of
their armies, Finland its RK 62 and RK 95 assault rifles made
mostly by Sako, and Sweden its AK 4 and AK 5s, the former being
a Swedish-made version of a battle rifle by Heckler & Koch.
Finland has not revealed how many handguns it intends to acquire
under the agreement but altogether it has hundreds of thousands
of handguns in storage for its war-time strength of 280,000
troops.
The two Nordic nations decided to join NATO military alliance
together last year, in response to Russia's February 2022
invasion of Ukraine, and have also stepped up their mutual
defense cooperation in the form of joint equipment purchases to
increase interoperability.
Finland's defense forces said the procurement followed Finnish
and EU exceptions to competition rules on the basis of national
security interests.
"The procurement has been carried out as a direct procurement,
so that the necessary damage repair capability, maintenance and
production know-how is available under all conditions within a
certain response time," it said in an emailed statement to
Reuters, adding Sako was the only industrial manufacturer of
handguns in Finland with sufficient manufacturing capacity.
Contacted by Reuters, Heckler & Koch GmbH declined to comment on
the proceeding and did not reveal if it had filed a similar
complaint in Sweden.
The Swedish Market Court or Stockholm's Administrative Court
found no pending complaints by the German company in their
registries.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen; editing by Christina Fincher)
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