DFS Guam and Lotte Duty Free returned to the courts last Friday, as DFS continues to challenge the award of the AB Won Pat International Airport duty free concession to Lotte Guam more than two years ago.

 

“We have a very direct beef with Lotte,” says DFS Legal Counsel Patrick Civille in an interview, which TRBusiness has obtained permission to cover from the Pacific News Center television station report last Friday. This includes face-to-face interviews with both Lotte and DFS’ lawyers on the issue.

 

As has been well documented by TRBusiness, the dispute between DFS and Lotte, as well as the Guam International Airport Authority (GIAA) has already been played out many times in court, with DFS determined to take it to a more favourable conclusion than it has so far been able to.

 

As it stands today, 19 of the 20 charges it has alleged have so far been dismissed, with court appearances involving both the Office of Public Accountability and the Supreme Court, at the same that DFS CEO Philippe Schaus has repeatedly told TRBusiness that DFS plans to take its case against Lotte and the GIAA right to the end.

 

 

Speaking on camera to the Pacific News Center, Attorney for Lotte Duty Free, Cesar Cabot said: “The nature of their economic TORT is that DFS is claiming that because they’ve held the contract for 30 years, that somehow they would have been entitled to have won this contract and that somehow things must have gone wrong because DFS didn’t win the contract. We think that that is completely ludicrous.” [A ‘tort’ is a legal term meaning grounds for lawsuits to compensate a grieving party for damages or injuries suffered-Ed].

 

Patrick Civille, Legal Counsel for DFS Guam countered: “That’s absolutely not true. It’s a free market economy. Awards of this sort go to the most qualified bidder. Now these are complicated bids and there’s a lot of factors that go into determining that, but no… what DFS is saying is that this was a corrupted procurement process and that’s very different.”

 

Lotte’s representative Cabot added: “So what they’re alleging is that they had this entitlement, reasonable entitlement expectation of a contract which they don’t have any right to, this being a government procurement.”

 

Civille countered: “I give Mr. Cabot credit, he used the right word. He said everybody is entitled to a fair playing field. Well that includes DFS and what we’re saying is the playing field wasn’t fair. The process was corrupted.”

 

The Pacific News Center report then noted Cabot’s suggestion that ‘DFS’ beef’ was actually with Guam International Airport Authority’s decision to award the contract to Lotte and not his client’s fault for winning the business.

 

 

But this was met vigorously by DFS’ Civille who left noone in doubt with where DFS stands on the issue: “We have been making allegations that they corrupted the process. We have a very direct beef with Lotte.

 

“We’ve said that they’ve interfered with our prospective economic relationships by their improper conduct, so I know they would love to sit on the sidelines, but you can’t read the pleadings and not come away knowing that – without knowing that what we’re really saying is they’re both linked in on the GIAA and Lotte are linked together on this.”

 

Cabot ended the interview saying: “We feel very confident that at the end Lotte will be vindicated. Lotte will prevail,” he said.

 

As reported, Lotte signed the five-year (plus five optional) contract in May 2013 and took over the shops from DFS on Sunday 21 July 2013. Guam International Airport Authority (GIAA) is said to be expecting around $15.4m in annual minimum guaranteed rentals from Lotte, plus a 1% share in all off-airport sales made through Lotte’s Aurora Hotel downtown store operation, although this is still not up and running.

 

TRBusiness would like to extend a special thank you to Janela Carrera, Assistant News Director at the Pacific News Center on the island of Guam for permission to reproduce interview comments from both the DFS and Lotte legal representatives here.

 

A direct link to the page where the Pacific News Center televised interview may be viewed can be accessed at this link: http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/business-pnc/5956

 

FURTHER STORY LINKS FROM TRBUSINESS RELATING TO THIS DISPUTE:

 

17 October 2014: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/asia-pacific/giaa-responds-to-dfs-new-lawsuit/57063

 

16 October 2014: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/africa/dfs-launches-new-guam-lawsuit/34380

 

16 September 2014: http://www.trbusiness.com/regional-news/asia-pacific/dfs-continues-guam-airport-concession-fight-with-giaa-and-lotte/57091