The French firm, now serving Guernsey routes, took DFDS and Jersey’s government to court at the end of last year, but its bid was thrown out early in the new year and it was ordered to pay tens of thousands to cover both parties’ legal costs.
But now Brittany is pursuing a much bigger claim against the Danish operator, which is running Jersey’s routes, for £125m. for losses it says are caused by ‘unfair competition’ on the ferry route between Newhaven and Dieppe.
Brittany Ferries said that it launched legal action against DFDS this week, claiming that grants that DFDS receives to run the loss-making route has cost its business £125m. since 2013.
In an action lodged with the Brest Commercial Court, it is seeking to recover its own significant losses that come from this ‘unfair competition’ which it said was distorting the cross-Channel market.
‘Subsidies granted by the Syndicat mixte transmanche (SMPAT) in Normandie allow DFDS to levy artificially low fares that are out of touch with economic reality,’ said Brittany Ferries president Jean-Marc Roue in an interview with French newspaper Le Marin.
‘This draws a significant proportion of freight and passenger traffic to the Newhaven-Dieppe route, to the detriment of Brittany Ferries.’
Mr Roue said that the subsidies were ‘a waste of public money’ and said that they had been criticised twice previously by the Normandy Regional Audit Office, but there had been no change to the policy.
The case is due to come to court in Brest on Friday 6 June.
In addition to the civil action, Brittany Ferries has also lodged a complaint with the EU Directorate-General for Competition.
Brittany Ferries operates cross-Channel services from Portsmouth, Plymouth and Poole to Cherbourg, St Malo, Caen, Le Havre and Roscoff.
DFDS runs routes between Dover and Calais and Dunkerque and the Jersey routes from Portsmouth and Poole, as well as the Newhaven service.
An annual 20m. euros subsidy for DFDS on the route between the Sussex port and northern France was agreed in 2022 as an extension of a previous deal.
It is set for a further review in 2027. The firm has operated the route with no competition since 2012, branded as Transmanche Ferries.
The region strongly backs the service and the subsidy, but although passenger numbers grew initially, they have been falling since reaching a high of 400,000 in 2015, though they have recovered fairly well since the Covid pandemic.
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