Annotation on the Judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (Fourth Chamber) of 15 September 2022 in Case C‑416/21 Landkreis Aichach-Friedberg v J Sch Omnibusunternehmen and K Reisen GmbH
On 15 September 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment concerning the interpretation of Article 57 of Directive 2014/24 following the questions referred to by a German court.1 The case concerns the exclusion of two tenders, submitted by the same person on behalf of two different companies, from the award of a public contract for public transport bus services. The questions referred were aimed at determining the scope of the exclusion ground based on breach of competition law and clarifying the articulation between Article 57 of Directive 2014/24 and the principle of equal treatment.
The CJEU clarifies that Article 57(4)(1)(d) of Directive 2014/24 has a broader scope than Article 101 TFEU since it also covers economic operators which have entered into agreements that do not fall within Article 101 TFEU. The CJEU also reiterates that the exhaustive list of optional grounds for exclusion provided for in Directive 2014/24 does not prevent the principle of equal treatment from precluding the award of the contract to economic operators which constitute an economic unit and whose tenders are neither autonomous nor independent.