The report notes the Government's chief commercial officer informed Palantir of his concern about the firm's practice of offering a zero- or nominal-cost initial offer to gain a commercial foothold.

This, he argued, was contrary to public procurement principles requiring open competition.

I've got a weird suggestion for you then Mr. Commercial Officer - don't allow obvious bait-and-switch tactics during public procurement!

Of course they can afford to take a 6 month loss when they intend to just jack up the price later.

This is literally the kind of scammy BS we're told to be weary of, yet the UK Government is just letting this happen, wasting millions of taxpayer pounds.