The health ministry has paid millions of euros in compensation to companies who were commissioned to supply coronavirus self-test which turned out not to be necessary and and which were not delivered, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday.

The payments have come to light following a court case involving two companies who are in dispute about how to divide up the compensation they were given for lost income on the tests.  The case, the paper said, throws new light on the way contracts were handed out during the pandemic.

The ministry will not say how much compensation has been paid out, but could be around €25 million, based on the €5.4 million in this court case and other known cases, the FD said. The ministry has declined to comment.

Six companies won tenders to supply 30 million self tests in January 2022 which were later deemed to be unnecessary.