Poland appeals €1.3B Brussels ruling ordering payment to Pfizer for Covid vaccines

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Poland on Monday appealed a Brussels court judgment ordering it to take delivery of roughly 64 million unwanted Covid-19 doses and pay Pfizer about €1.3 billion. Warsaw also asked judges to freeze the ruling’s provisional enforcement while the challenge is heard.

“The decision of the court of first instance does not take into account all the relevant factual and legal circumstances of the case,” the Health Ministry said in a statement . It added that Poland would use “all legal means of defense,” but declined to disclose its arguments or evidence, citing the need to protect the state’s interests.

The ruling which Poland appealed relates to a 2021 agreement the European Commission negotiated with Pfizer on behalf of EU countries. Poland stopped accepting vaccine deliveries in 2022, citing collapsing demand and the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Pfizer sued Poland and Romania the following year. In April 2026, a Brussels court ruled that Warsaw remained bound by the contract and ordered it to pay roughly €1.3 billion, plus interest and legal costs, for the undelivered doses.

Pfizer defended the Belgian judgment, which it told POLITICO reflected “the importance of the contractual obligations that underpinned a successful European pandemic response, built on the principle of solidarity between Member States.” The company said it was taking “appropriate steps” to ensure compliance through “established legal enforcement mechanisms,” adding that those efforts followed “years of discussions and significant flexibility to accommodate Member States’ circumstances.”