While the Vienna public prosecutor’s office is investigating the owner of Lead Horizon for breach of trust, falsification of documents and evidence, the company, which has turned over millions with the production of the PCR test kits for the Vienna Covid testing program “Everything gurgles! “, is threatened not only with criminal hardships. The German company CoviMedical has filed a lawsuit against Lead Horizon in the Viennese commercial court with a disputed value of 3.3 million euros.
CoviMedical, the leading provider of corona testing solutions in Germany, entered into a business relationship with Lead Horizon in March 2022. The Vienna PCR test kits are to be rolled out nationwide at 200 locations in Germany to be prepared for any upcoming pandemic waves.
A purchase agreement was reached for one million test kits, which CoviMedical now considers obsolete. A claim for dissolution of the purchase contract is pending before the Commercial Court of Vienna under number 31 Cg 93/22v. For Lead Horizon, the allegations are both unfounded and “untenable,” as emphasized Thursday.
From the point of view of the German company from Dillenburg, the test kits from Vienna were or are unusable because the online solution for testing for coronavirus infection in the living room is not reliably possible. “A condition for the purchase contract was that the authentication process via a web app worked perfectly. Lead Horizon released a final beta version of the AI web app in October 2022.”
App for PCR testing supposedly unusable
“Within a few days, CoviMedical realized it wasn’t working, that the app couldn’t clearly identify the test taker,” says Viennese attorney Katharina Kitzberger, whose law firm (Weber & Co) commissioned CoviMedical in consultation with APA. Lead Horizon management dismissed these allegations as “far-fetched”. At the same time, it was emphasized that the app intended for Germany was different from the app developed in Austria for the test program “Alles gurgelt!”.
The procedure that was or is used in the self-test of the Lead Horizon home test kits is familiar to “Everything Gargles!” users. However, from CoviMedical’s point of view, the German web app cannot and does not guarantee that the person who signed up or registered for the test is the same as the person on the photo ID used for the identification process. Contrary to what Lead Horizon promised, the app’s artificial intelligence (AI) is unable to correctly match the person signed up for the test with the scanned document or the face held in front of the camera, CoviMedical claims .
Reliable authentication not possible?
Even with a larger photo of a stranger or even a cat in the camera, false identification can be obtained. No reliable “Proof of Identity” was issued for CoviMedical. In addition, during the ongoing test procedure, the AI cannot ensure that the person who has already been identified is the same person who is currently performing the test. Also, the app cannot verify the authenticity of the document used. CoviMedical therefore came to the conclusion that due to the lack of a reliable authentication procedure, the Lead Horizon test kits in Germany were not suitable for use for certification by government agencies and authorities.
“Lead Horizon has ensured that a one hundred percent reliable comparison of the test person is possible,” emphasizes Viennese lawyer Kitzberger. Relying on a reliable online solution, CoviMedical purchased the Vienna test kits. “But we have footage that proves that the alleged gargle test didn’t even need to be performed by humans to get positive feedback from the app,” Kitzberger said of pets being held on camera.
Lead Horizon Speaks of “Indefensible Allegations”
“The criticisms that CoviMedical is now raising are apparently due to the fact that CoviMedical wants to withdraw from a closed contract because they have no interest in doing so – probably also given the decrease in the pandemic situation, but also because of their misjudgment of a hoped-for change in the legal framework in Germany has more,” says Lead Horizon. The German company ordered “in the hope of a development of the legal situation in Germany that will enable digital self-tests. “This expectation has not materialized and CoviMedical is trying now to pass on the economic consequences of its misjudgment to Lead Horizon,” says Lead Horizon.
CoviMedical only received 200,000 test kits from Lead Horizon, the rest of the goods covered by the purchase contract were no longer accepted, reported Munich lawyer Julian Bartholomä, who specializes in medical law and also represents CoviMedical. The Viennese company refused to take back the 200,000 pieces and insisted on payment and compliance with the contractual agreements.
Especially in Vienna during the pandemic, the self-test was in the living room as part of the campaign “Alles gurgles!” very popular. 46.8 million people gargled in the federal capital. With the web solution Lead Horizon, photos of the tested person and their identity card were processed for identity verification and compared with the face to be held in front of the camera. This was the only way to get an officially recognized test result.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
