Judgment of the General Court (Seventh Chamber) of 1 February 2018 — European Dynamics Luxembourg and Others v ECHA

(Case T‑477/15)

(Public supply contracts — Tender procedure — Provisions of information technology (IT) services for the applications of the ECHA — Rejection of an offer by a tenderer — Award criteria — Obligation to state reasons — Manifest errors of assessment — Non-contractual liability)

1.      Actions for annulment — Admissibility criteria — Interest in bringing proceedings — Bringing of a single action by two applicants — Admissibility of the action of one of the applicants — No need to examine the admissibility of the action in relation to the second applicant

(Art. 263 TFEU)

(see para. 22)

2.      Acts of the institutions — Statement of reasons — Obligation — Scope — Decision, in the procedure for the award of a public service contract, not to accept a tender — Obligation on the awarding authority to notify, on written request, the characteristics and relative advantages of the tender accepted and the name of the successful tenderer — No obligation to provide a detailed summary as how every detail of the rejected tender was taken into account for assessment purposes, or a detailed comparative analysis of the accepted tender and the unsuccessful tender

(Art. 296 TFEU; Parliament and Council Regulation No 966/2012, Art. 113(2), first para.; Commission Regulation No 1268/2012, Arts 149(3) and 161(3), third para.)

(see paras 34-37)

3.      European Union public contracts — Conclusion of a contract following a call for tenders — Discretion of the institutions — Judicial review — Limits

(Parliament and Council Regulation No 966/2012)

(see paras 47, 126)

4.      European Union public contracts — Tender procedure — Obligation to comply with the principle of equal treatment of tenderers — Need to ensure equal opportunities and comply with the principle of transparency — Scope

(see paras 124, 125)

5.      European Union public contracts — Tender procedure — Award of contracts — The most economically advantageous tender — Award criteria — Observance of the principle of equal treatment of tenderers and of the principle of transparency — Power of the contracting authority to structure its word to examine and analyse the tenders presented without changing the award criteria for the contract in the tender specifications — Lawfulness

(Parliament and Council Regulation No 966/2012, Art. 110(2); Commission Regulation No 1268/2012, Art. 149(1), (2) and (3))

(see para. 130)

6.      European Union public contracts — Tender procedure — Award of contracts — Award criteria — Duty to comply with the principles of equal treatment of tenderers and transparency — Criteria having to be formulated in the tender specifications or the contract notice — Assessment factors attaching to those criteria

(Commission Regulation No 1268/2012, Art. 159)

(see para. 131)

Re:

APPLICATION, first, under Article 263 TFEU, for annulment of the decisions notified to the applicants by letter of 25 June 2015, by which the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) rejected their tender for the award of contract No ECHA/2014/86 for the provision of IT services for the IT applications of ECHA and awarded that contract to another bidder and, secondly, under Article 268 TFEU, for compensation for the damage which the applicants allegedly suffered.

Operative part

The Court:

1. Dismisses the action;

2. Orders European Dynamics Luxembourg SA, European Dynamics Belgium SA and Evropaïki Dynamiki — Proigmena Systimata Tilepikoinonion Pliroforikis kai Tilematikis AE to bear its own costs and those incurred by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).