US tech firm Palantir and the office of London mayor Sadiq Khan have settled Palantir's lawsuit over a decision to block a £50 million contract with the Metropolitan Police, bringing an end to a legal dispute that had drawn in questions about the company's values and its role in British public life.
Palantir had agreed a two-year contract with the Met Police to use its artificial intelligence systems to automate certain tasks and to analyse evidence. But the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime, known as MOPAC, refused to approve the deal, telling the Met it had failed to run an open competition for the contract. Reports also quoted a spokesperson for the mayor citing concerns that Palantir did not align with 'London's values.'
Palantir's supply of software to the US military and immigration services, together with the political views of billionaire co-founder Peter Thiel, have drawn scrutiny as European governments grow increasingly wary of dependence on American technology platforms.
The company had been challenging the decision to block the Met contract through the courts. On Wednesday, Palantir and MOPAC said in a joint statement that they had resolved the case and 'withdrawn their allegations against each other.'
In a significant climbdown, MOPAC stated that its decision not to enter into the contract 'was not based on Palantir's values or ethics or any wider reporting about the company.' The statement added that MOPAC 'does not have, and has never had, any policy of not contracting with Palantir' and that the company was welcome to participate in any future procurement processes.
The settlement comes as Britain is conducting a review of a separate £330 million National Health Service contract with Palantir, which covers the NHS Federated Data Platform. A parliamentary committee said the company had a 'clear mismatch with UK values' and recommended using a break clause in the deal — a suggestion that Palantir's British CEO, Louis Mosley, called 'irresponsible.'
The Met contract dispute had become a test case for how far British public bodies can go in excluding technology suppliers on grounds of corporate conduct rather than procurement rules. The joint statement's explicit denial that values played any role suggests MOPAC was keen to avoid setting a precedent that could complicate future procurement decisions.
Neither party disclosed the financial terms of the settlement. Palantir continues to pursue public sector work in the UK, while the Met Police will need to revisit how it procures AI-driven analytics capabilities for its operations. The outcome of the NHS contract review is expected to be the next major milestone in the company's relationship with the British state.