Three provinces claim €3.8m over late digital bus stop displays

The provinces of Overijssel, Gelderland and Flevoland are demanding €3.8m in damages from Surtronic, the company contracted to install digital displays at bus stops. The two sides argued for hours in court on Tuesday. The displays were meant to be in place by 2022 and still are not.

The provinces paid €18.6m for the displays in 2020. Their €3.8m claim consists of, among other things, the cost of extra staff and of keeping the old travel information systems running longer. They also say more than 300 displays already delivered must be repaired, and they want to offset a €125,000 fine. Their lawyer argued in court that Surtronic failed to perform under the contract: "These are failures to perform on Surtronic's part." The provinces say the company missed deadline after deadline. Their lawyer said it "did not just narrowly miss, but missed by a long way".

Surtronic rejects that picture. It has its own claim of more than €6m and says the provinces breached the contract. It wants payment for lost income and for materials it could not use after the order was stopped. Its lawyer pointed to the coronavirus crisis, the blockage of the Suez Canal and a worldwide shortage of parts.

The fight over the source code

The provinces say they want access to the source code behind the display software, so that another party can maintain the system if a supplier goes bankrupt or a contract ends early. Surtronic calls the code essential company capital and first wanted an independent third party to hold it.

Director Jan Linssen told the court the company felt the contract would collapse if it did not go along with the provinces. "We chose to cut our losses," he said. The provinces say the code was ultimately delivered directly to them and that this became part of the agreements. They say they do not recognise any pressure, and that the matter was closed once the agreement was signed. They say they accepted an intermediary only if it held all the necessary software.

The two sides also disagree on whether the systems worked. Surtronic says an October 2023 demonstration showed they did. The provinces say a screen switching on does not prove the system meets all requirements, and that the visit was only meant to show which parts were ready.

The court will give a ruling. The judge said on Tuesday afternoon that it may take longer than the six weeks it can in principle take.