DFS seeks firm date for Lotte Duty Free exit from Guam Airport retail space

GUAM. DFS Group has filed a motion seeking a firm date for Lotte Duty Free to exit retail space at A.B. Won Pat International Airport Authority after winning a court decision earlier this month. It is one of four alterations the company is seeking to the initial judgement.

As reported, the Superior Court voided A.B. Won Pat International Airport Authority’s 2012 Request for Proposals (RFP) for a speciality retailer and set aside the awarding of the airport’s speciality retail concession to Lotte Duty Free Guam. Judge Arthur Barcinas found that the airport authority violated Guam’s procurement law during the 2012 RFP, a decision that the airport authority has since appealed.

DFS filed a motion on Friday seeking the correction of what it said were errors in the already favourable decision, one of which concerns the timing of its rival’s exit. The story (as with the original news of Judge Barcinas’s decision, was first reported by the Guam Daily Post.

Lotte Duty Free’s concession at A.B. Won Pat International Airport has been mired in controversy since the airport’s RFP took place in 2012

DFS said it fully agreed with the court decision, but noted four “inadvertent errors” that would result in “manifest injustice” and “the imposition of substantial prejudice” to DFS.

It noted that the court’s decision addressed only one of the company’s three protests. The claims in the two other protests remain pending and should be addressed either by going to trial or placing a stay on them until the Supreme Court rules on the airport’s appeal. DFS has sought amendment of the judgement to make clear it applies to only one of its three protests.

As noted, DFS wants certainty about when Lotte will vacate its retail space. The original ruling stated that Lotte will be allowed to remain as the duty free concessionaire until the airport chooses a new retailer. However, DFS said that Lotte could be allowed to remain indefinitely, as there is “no specific time frame requiring GIAA to begin a new, lawful procurement process”.

Third, if the court intends its decision to apply only to one protest, the order must include what it termed “an express determination that there is no reason for delay” and “an express direction for the entry of judgment.” Finally, DFS has asked the judge to grant its statutory legal costs.

As reported, the concession was awarded to Lotte Duty Free Guam in 2013, replacing long-time incumbent DFS Group. The result has been the subject of a bitter legal feud involving both retailers and the airport authority ever since, after DFS challenged both the RFP process and the award.

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