Public procurement case before the European Court of Justice

Our dispute resolution team represents a leading waste management company in Lithuania in public tender litigation proceedings. The dispute arose after the Waste Management Center of the Region of Klaipėda unlawfully declared a third-party winner of public tender, despite that the third party did not meet the qualification requirements and provided misleading and potentially false information.

Our team has successfully represented Ecoservice Klaipėda in the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Lithuania. Now the case is being heard by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania.

The litigation involves complex national and European Union public procurement law matters regarding the financial and economic capacity as a criterion of qualification; the balance between the protection of the confidential information provided by a tenderer and the effectiveness of the rights of defense of other tenderers; the court’s right to depart from contracting authority’s assessment of the lawfulness of the conduct of the economic operator to which the contract was awarded; the legal consequences of submitting false information, etc. Therefore, the Supreme Court of Lithuania decided to request the European Court of Justice for the preliminary ruling.

After recognizing the exceptional importance of the issues, the European Court of Justice decided to sit as a Grand Chamber (15 judges).

On 7 September 2021, the European Court of Justice gave a preliminary ruling, which is believed to be of great importance for the whole sector of public procurement.

We are pleased that the European Court of Justice supported most of the Motieka & Audzevičius team‘s arguments on European Union law interpretation and found in favour of our client.

After the preliminary ruling, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Lithuania will provide more legal certainty for the national law of public tenders.