Judgment of the General Court (Fifth Chamber) of 6 May 2013 — Kieffer Omnitec v Commission
(Case T‑288/11)
Public service contracts — Procurement procedure — Maintenance of the HVAC, sprinkler and water and sanitary installations in the Joseph-Bech building in Luxembourg — Rejection of a tenderer’s bid — Equal treatment — Transparency — Proportionality — Manifest error of assessment — Duty to state reasons
1. EU public contracts — Tender procedure — Public contracts awarded by EU institutions — Inapplicability of the directives concerning the award of public works, supply and service contracts by the institutions of the Member States — Exception — Questions concerning the thresholds determining the rules for publication, the choice of procedures and corresponding time-limits (Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Art. 105) (see para. 23)
2. EU public contracts — Tender procedure — Duty to comply with the principle of equal treatment of tenderers — Need to ensure equal opportunities and comply with the principle of transparency — Criteria laid down for the contract document — Clear, precise and unequivocal — Proportionate (Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Arts 89(1) and 92) (see paras 25-29, 34, 41)
3. EU public contracts — Conclusion of a contract following a call for tenders — Discretion of the institutions — Judicial review — Limits (see paras 46, 47)
4. Judicial proceedings — Introduction of new pleas during the proceedings — Plea raised for the first time at the reply stage — Inadmissibility (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 48(2)) (see para. 72)
5. 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 — Assessment in the light of information available to the applicant at the time the action brought (Art. 296 TFEU; Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Art. 100(2); Commission Regulation No 2342/2002, Art. 149(3)(a)) (see paras 79-84)
Re:
| APPLICATION for annulment of the Commission’s decision of 1 April 2001 rejecting the tender submitted by the applicant in the procurement procedure relating to the conclusion of a contract for maintenance of HVAC, sprinkler and water and sanitary installations at the Joseph-Bech Building in Luxembourg and awarding the contract to another tenderer (OJ 2010/S 241 367523). |
Operative part
The Court:
2. | | Orders A+P Kieffer Omnitec Sàrl to pay the costs. |