EU’s von der Leyen loses court fight over secret Pfizer texts

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen lost a court fight against attempts to force her to disclose secret text messages with Pfizer Inc.’s boss as the bloc was negotiating massive vaccine deals at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Judges at the EU’s General Court in Luxembourg backed a challenge from the New York Times against the commission’s refusal to disclose the texts, saying it “has not given a plausible explanation to justify the non-possession” of the messages.

“Moreover, the commission has not sufficiently clarified whether the requested text messages were deleted and, if so, whether the deletion was done deliberately or automatically or whether the president’s mobile phone had been replaced in the meantime,” the court said.

The New York Times had asked the court to force the disclosure of a message exchange between von der Leyen and Pfizer’s chief executive officer, Albert Bourla, that could show how a costly vaccine deal was struck in 2021.

While Wednesday’s ruling, which can be appealed to the EU’s Court of Justice, is an embarrassment for von der Leyen, it’s more likely to affect how the EU’s executive arm treats text messages in the future.

The Brussels-based commission argued that while it couldn’t deny that text messages were exchanged between von der Leyen and Bourla — as nations rushed to secure enough vaccines for their populations — it never kept hold of any records of them as they were not considered important.

In 2020, as the pandemic’s death toll rose and successive lockdowns wrought havoc through Europe’s economy, von der Leyen sought to secure more vaccines for EU governments. The EU roll out of the shots initially lagged behind the US and other regions that were faster to get and distribute vaccines.

She announced a new contract in May 2021 for Pfizer to supply as many as 1.8 billion shots between 2021 and 2023, and a New York Times article claimed that the deal was negotiated over text.

Pfizer, which was not accused of any wrongdoing, declined to immediately comment on the ruling.

The case is: T-36/23 Stevi and The New York Times v Commission.