Another Real Estate Transaction Requalified As A Public Works Contract

In NF` (C‑28/23), the Court of Justice ruled that a subsidy agreement awarding a multi-million subsidy for the construction of a stadium, followed years later by the State's promise to purchase the stadium, was a public procurement contract for works.

Public procurement rules require competitive tendering. Following national legislation, a contract concluded in breach of public procurement rules is null and void from the outset (ex tunc). In this case, the Slovak State had chosen its contractor without a competitive procedure and raised the nullity of the contract in the context of a dispute.

With this decision of 17 October 2024, the Court of Justice reminds economic actors that vigilance is required whenever an authority ultimately obtains an infrastructure or real estate asset. This is so although the parties used several separate contracts with different subject matters.