Competition Law And Public Procurement – One Cannot Do Without The Other Or Potentially Diverging Rules

Article summary

• The sustainable, green, digital era is well and truly upon us. Vast quantities of taxpayer's money are set to be spent on all sorts of investments that meet EU and national policies. Public tenders and public procurement rules are in place to make sure that this money is spent in a non-discriminatory transparent way in a market where the level playing field is safeguarded as well.
• Contractors who fall short or have violated competition rules can and indeed in some cases, must be excluded from public tenders. At least until they have compensated for damage suffered and put in place systems to avoid similar mistakes being made.
• To ensure that the Community money is wisely spent and properly accounted for, the EU relies on the application of procurement rules. But what if there is a lack of competition in the marketplace or companies have colluded during the bidding process?