EPPPL - European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review

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The search returned 2 results.

Rachel Scheele, Grith Skovgaard Ølykke

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 18 (2023), Issue 2, Page 139 - 149

This article analyses the application of competition rules to abnormally low tenders. The purpose is to determine whether – and under which circumstances – abnormally low tenders may constitute violations of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, as well as how contracting authorities may or should proceed in case of potential infringements of competition law. It is concluded that abnormally low tenders may indeed violate EU competition law, which can lead to distortions of competition in public procurement markets in the short and/or long run, resulting in a decrease of social welfare. The parallel existences of the two sets of rules that regulate low prices – but which do not entirely coincide – do not seem to facilitate enforcement of competition law violations, which is crucial to obtaining efficient public procurement. Some proposals for a more competition-oriented approach to abnormally low tenders are provided. Keywords: Article 101 TFEU; Article 102 TFEU; Directive 2014/24/EU; bid-rigging; predatory pricing; principle of equal treatment

Christopher Bovis, Deividas Soloveičik

European Procurement & Public Private Partnership Law Review, Volume 18 (2023), Issue 2, Page 112 - 120

Traditionally and through the evolution of the Public Procurement acquis, works contracts subsidised directly by more than 50% by Member States could fall within the scope of the Works Directive.1 Works that were not subsidised directly, or for less than 50%, fell outside of this anti-circumvention provision. Not all subsidised works fall within the scope of public procurement regulation: only civil engineering works, such as the construction of roads, bridges and railways, as well as building work for hospitals; facilities intended for sports, recreation and leisure; and university buildings and buildings used for administrative purposes are referred to as ‘subsidised works contracts’.2 That list was exhaustive. The Works Directive did not apply to works contracts which are declared secret or the execution of which must be accompanied by special security measures3 in accordance with the laws, regulations or administrative provisions in force in the Member State concerned; nor does the Directive apply to works contracts when the protection of the basic interests of the Member States’ security so required. Finally, the Works Directive did not apply to public works contracts awarded in pursuance of certain international agreements;4 nor did the Directive apply to public works contracts awarded pursuant to the particular procedure of an international organisation5 such as NATO, which has their own rules on the awarding of public works contracts. The new codified Public Sector Directive has introduced a series of new concepts that are the product of jurisprudential inferences and policy refining of the previous legal regimes. They intend to modernise public purchasing, aligning the procurement of government and its agencies with those of utilities that operate in more commercially-oriented environments. Keywords: abnormally low tender; predatory pricing; subsidies

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