After more than a decade of protests and lawsuits, a trial is expected to begin this week in the legal battle between Duty Free Shoppers and the Guam International Airport Authority over the once-highly lucrative master concession contract. Attorneys for the sides appeared before Judge Arthur Barcinas today for a motions hearing ahead of a possible bench trial on Wednesday.

The airport has filed a motion to dismiss the case due to a lack of subject matter jurisdiction. It argues that the contract with lotte has been performed over the last ten years.

The litigation goes all the way back to 2013 when the Guam Airport Authority awarded a ten-year deal to Lotte Duty Free. Duty Free Shoppers, or DFS, had held the airport's specialty retail concessionaire contract for more than 30 years, before losing it to Lotte.

According to KUAM files, Lotte was selected after bidding $15.4 million a year in concession fees, which GIAA said was more than twice what DFS was paying under the previous contract.

DFS filed procurement protests, followed by lawsuits, against the airport alleging a variety of issues, including misconduct by board members for accepting gifts during a Lotte-organized trip to Korea.

The two sides have been battling it out in court ever since.

Former airport executive manager under the Calvo Administration, Chuck Ada, had responded at one time, that "of course DFS is unhappy it lost a contract it held exclusively without competition for decades which yielded tens of millions of dollars in profits for dfs. Plain and simple, the Lotte contract is better for the airport and the people of Guam."

Meanwhile, GIAA has a clause in its contract wtih lotte in which the Korean retail giant will cover the legal fees for any disputes that may arise.

Since then, the sides have spent millions on legal fees.

Coincidentally, the Guam Legislature authorized and the airport board just approved a three-year extension of the lotte contract, ostensibly so the company can make up for losses sustained when tourism arrivals disappeared during the pandemic.

In 2018, Judge Barcinas granted summary judgement in favor of DFS, and voided the contract. The airport then appealed to the Guam Supreme Court, which vacated the lower court's decision.

No word yet on Judge Barcinas ruling on today's motion to dismiss. If he rules against it, a bench trial is scheduled for Wednesday.