The news of a dispute between the EU and AstraZeneca over the delayed supply of Covid-19 vaccinations has been the cause of much debate over the past week.

This prompted The Times to ask Waterfront Partner Alison Berryman for her thoughts on the wording on the contract, the potential for litigation to arise out of the dispute and in particular if AstraZeneca could cite the force majeure clause as a reason for the delays.

Alison commented that the pandemic “has certainly thrown force majeure clauses into the spotlight”, she also said that “despite citing production delays as their rather vague explanation for the delayed delivery of vaccines to the EU, Astrazeneca doesn’t appear to be trying to rely on its force majeure clause at the present time”.

Alison’s comments featured in The Times and can be read here.