Image: GEORG HOCHMUTH (APA)
The German company CoviMedical has filed a lawsuit against Lead Horizon at the Vienna Commercial Court with a value in dispute of 3.3 million euros.
The leading provider of corona test solutions in Germany entered into a business relationship with Lead Horizon in March 2022. The Vienna PCR test kits should be rolled out nationwide at 200 locations in Germany in order to be prepared for any upcoming pandemic waves. A purchase agreement for one million test kits was concluded, which CoviMedical now considers obsolete. An action for rescission of the purchase contract is pending at the Vienna Commercial Court under number 31 Cg 93/22v. For Lead Horizon, the allegations are both unjustified and “untenable,” as emphasized on Thursday.
Test kits from Vienna unusable
From the point of view of the German company based in Dillenburg, the test kits from Vienna were or are unusable because the online solution offered for testing for an infection with the corona virus in the living room at home is not reliably possible. “The condition for the purchase contract was that the authentication process via a web app worked perfectly. Lead Horizon made a final beta version of the web app with artificial intelligence available in October 2022. Within a few days, CoviMedical figured out that this doesn’t work because the app is not able to clearly identify the test person,” says the Viennese lawyer Katharina Kitzberger, whose law firm (Weber & Co) is mandated by CoviMedical.
Allegations “far-fetched”
The Lead Horizon management dismissed these allegations as “far-fetched”. At the same time, it was emphasized that the app intended for Germany is different from the one that was developed for the “Alles Gurgelt” test program: “CoviMedical’s lawsuit relates exclusively to the German market and with the web app used in Vienna for the project ‘Everything gurgelt’ has nothing in common. In particular, it’s about a completely different web app than the one used in Austria in the ‘Alles gurgelt’ project. In Austria, the testing process is not checked by artificial intelligence.” In this respect, the legal dispute is “not suitable for unsettling the population in Vienna, who trusts in ‘Alles Gurgelt'”.
Authentication unreliable
The procedure that was or is to be used in the self-test with the Lead Horizon test kits for domestic use is familiar to “Alles Gurgelt” users. From the point of view of CoviMedical, however, the German web app cannot and could not guarantee that the person who registered or had registered for the test is the same as the person on the photo ID used for the identification process. Contrary to what Lead Horizon has promised, the app’s artificial intelligence (AI) is not able to correctly match the person registered for the test with the scanned document or the face held up to the camera, CoviMedical claims. Even with a larger photo of a stranger or even a cat held in the camera, a false identification could be obtained. A reliable “Proof of Identity” was not given for CoviMedical. In addition, during the ongoing test procedure, the AI cannot ensure that the person who has already been identified is the same person who is currently carrying out the test. The app is also unable to verify the authenticity of the document used.
CoviMedical therefore came to the conclusion that due to the lack of a reliable authentication process, the Lead Horizon test kits in Germany were not suitable for use for certification by public bodies and authorities. “Lead Horizon has assured that a one hundred percent reliable comparison of the test person is possible,” emphasizes the Viennese lawyer Kitzberger. Trusting in a reliable online solution, CoviMedical purchased the Vienna test kits. “But we have footage that proves that the purported gargling test didn’t even have to be performed by humans to get positive feedback from the app,” Kitzberger said of pets held in the camera. The information provided by Lead Horizon was therefore “demonstrably wrong”.
Lead Horizon rejects allegations
The Lead Horizon management emphatically rejected this in a detailed statement: “Lead Horizon has not given any false information or false assurances to CoviMedical. Rather, the properties of the web app intended for the German market have always been clearly communicated.” It was a web application developed specifically for CoviMedical and according to their wishes: “CoviMedical’s allegations are unjustified. The web app meets the requirements that were defined together with CoviMedical after extensive negotiations and agreed in the contract The points of criticism drawn to CoviMedical are apparently due to the fact that CoviMedical wants to withdraw from a concluded contract because it is no longer interested in doing so – probably also in view of the decline in the pandemic situation, but also due to its misjudgment of a hoped-for change in the legal framework in Germany.”
“Fallen from all clouds”
The Munich lawyer specializing in medical law, Julian Bartholomä, sees another, possibly bigger problem in addition to the economic damage for CoviMedical: “Lead Horizon has advertised that you can get EU certificates with their test procedure, for example for the green passport. With the now-known flaws in their technology, this is of concern.” At the European level, there were “clear specifications for EU certificates” in terms of security, namely that the test person must either appear in person in test containers or test streets or that comparable security standards are guaranteed for web solutions, Bartholomä explained in an interview. In any case, due to safety concerns, CoviMedical “did not issue a single test kit”. “Appropriate collateral is required for a green passport. It was amazing when it was realized that the solution offered by Lead Horizon is not really a solution,” said the Munich lawyer, who also represents the Duisburg-based company.
CoviMedical only received 200,000 test kits from Lead Horizon, the rest of the goods covered by the purchase contract were no longer accepted, Bartholomä reported. The Viennese company refused to take back the 200,000 pieces and insisted on payment and compliance with the contractual agreements.
Lead Horizon noted that they “still have an open claim against CoviMedical, which CoviMedical refuses to settle”. The arguments of the German company are “unjustified and will have to be appreciated by the court appealed to”. Unlike apparently CoviMedical, one is “of the opinion that the differences in opinion between the parties to the dispute should be carried out before the Vienna Commercial Court and not in the media”.
Different legal situation in Germany
In the opinion of Lead Horizon, the connection between the WebApp intended for Germans and the lack of certification for Germany, which CoviMedical claims, does not exist, since the legal situation in Germany differs from that in Austria: “In Germany, according to the current legal situation, Covid-19 test samples, for which a test certificate has been handed out, can only be taken by trained personnel or, if necessary, under the appropriate supervision by authorized persons on site Germany.” CoviMedical was “aware of this at all times”, regardless of which they commissioned the Vienna test kits, including the web app further developed for Germany, according to the Lead Horizon management in its statement: “In the hope of a development of the legal situation in Germany, which allows digital self-tests. This expectation has not materialized and CoviMedical is now trying to pass on the economic consequences of their misjudgment to Lead Horizon”.
In Vienna in particular, during the pandemic, self-testing in the living room as part of the “Alles gurgelt” campaign was very popular. 46.8 million people gargled in the federal capital. In the Lead Horizon Web solution, photos of the person being tested and their ID card were processed for identity verification and compared with the face that had to be held up to the camera. This was the only way to get an officially recognized test result. According to Lead Horizon, the video that users had to create while gargling was used to ensure that the test was carried out correctly. The videos themselves would be viewed “in the event of a complaint and for quality assurance” by selected Lead Horizon employees, the company had assured in March 2021.
Source: Nachrichten
