Palantir settled its London lawsuit and still lost the £50 million Met Police contract
Palantir settled its High Court challenge on October 14, 2026, with the blocked £50 million contract still dead and open to rivals, hours after an 18-country investigation put Europe's Palantir spending at €1.4 billion and rising resistance against it.
Richard Tang · 2 min read
Palantir−0.28% — Palantir, down 0.28 percent today has dropped its High Court fight with London's mayor and gained almost nothing: the £50 million Met Police contract it sued over stays dead, goes out to a competitive re-run in which Palantir is only one bidder, and neither side paid the other a penny 14. On the same day, an 18-country investigation put Europe's government spending on the company at roughly €1.4 billion, and at least that, with several of those governments now actively unwinding it 2. For anyone holding Palantir stock, this is the political ceiling on its European business made visible: gatekeepers can void a deal after the police have signed it, and the re-run is open to rivals.
The settlement is not the win the statement makes it look like
MOPAC, the mayor's policing office, agreed the block was not based on Palantir's "values or ethics" and that Palantir is free to bid again 15. But the contract is still re-tendered, with the decision expected in the spring and an open field 5. The Met commissioner's warning that the system would have funded 500 job cuts against a budget shortfall changes nothing about who gets paid 5. Palantir's answer is Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader hired as a senior vice-president last month, a hire a Labour MP described as buying access 78. Lobbyists cannot re-run a tender.
The bigger number is Europe, and Europe is pushing back
Follow the Money's survey found 11 European governments buying Palantir at national level, eight using it in defense, and NATO running its command system on the company's MAVEN software, bought in March 2025 2. Denmark's army has halted MAVEN purchase talks in favor of a European alternative, France's domestic intelligence service will not renew its contract, and Britain is reviewing the £330 million NHS data contract ahead of a break clause in February 2027 26.
The chain from here: every watchdog that voids one deal raises the cost of the next one, and the re-runs are where competitors eat the revenue. Watch the NHS clause and the spring Met decision.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
