Palantir Technologies—Palantir sued London's MOPAC after it blocked a £50M Met Police AI contract, alleging unlawful reliance on 'values and ethics'
In May 2026, London Mayor Sadiq Khan's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) blocked a proposed two-year, up to £50M Metropolitan Police contract with Palantir for AI-driven criminal-investigation data analysis, finding the Met had seriously considered only one supplier and failed to present a procurement strategy for approval - a 'clear and serious breach' of procurement rules. Palantir filed a High Court challenge in June 2026, alleging MOPAC acted unlawfully and irrationally by treating the company's 'values and ethics' as grounds for rejection and imposing an unlawful veto; MOPAC denies ethics were the basis and says the Met's process itself was unlawful and gave 'misleading and/or inconsistent information.' As of September 2026, Khan agreed to have his texts and emails searched as part of discovery, with 12+ MOPAC/GLA officials also designated document custodians; a full High Court hearing is scheduled for January 2027.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government Ethics & Anti-Corruption | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Surveillance Technology | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.498 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (1 signal)
Palantir's High Court challenge against MOPAC over blocked Met Police contract confirmed by BBC, Guardian, Politico
MOPAC blocked the Met's planned Palantir contract in May 2026 over procurement breaches; Palantir sued in June 2026 alleging the rejection unlawfully relied on the company's 'values and ethics'. By September 2026, Sadiq Khan agreed to have his texts and emails searched for discovery, with a full High Court hearing set for January 2027.