To be clear, the customer of AZ in this case is the UK government, and I don't think we know what conditions they put into their contract with AZ. The customer

To be clear, the customer of AZ in this case is the UK government, and I don't think we know what conditions they put into their contract with AZ. The customers of AZ in this case are the UK and many foreign governments. They each have their own contracts. Some of the details have been made public, others have not. It's been widely reported that the UK has a guarantee of 100M doses supplied before AZ starts exports, which seems pretty clear. Given the UK government's other actions, not least in apparently pushing Oxford to work with AZ in the first place, it seems not only plausible but likely that they did consider the potential risks you mentioned and incorporate safeguards into the contract accordingly. We've seen a slightly redacted version of the EU contract, and their claims about AZ's level of commitments are at best debatable. It's also worth noting that the EU contract includes specific conditions relating to early doses and manufacture in EU-based facilities, with explicit distinctions being made about when that term does (or, by implication, doesn't) include UK-based facilities. The EU has conveniently ignored those aspects of its contract while criticising AZ for the delays. Unfortunately a lot of people will take the side of AZ in such a dispute even if the EU's interpretation is correct, especially if that correctness is determined by an EU court. Why is that unfortunate? The way the EU is trying to bully others to cover for its own mistakes here is very disappointing and a horrible precedent would be set if the EU actually tried to follow through on its threats. As the submitted article mentions, it would probably also be an act of self-harm by the EU to do so, not just for the long-term political and diplomatic damage it would do, but also because other nations affected including the UK might be in a position to retaliate directly if they chose to do so.