The applicants are made aware of the legal meaning of § 160, para. 3 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition, particularly its no. 4.
§ 160 Introduction, Application
(1) The public procurement tribunal shall initiate review procedures only upon application.
(2) Every undertaking which has an interest in the contract and claims that its rights under § 97 para. 7 were violated by non-compliance with the provisions governing the awarding of public contracts has the right to file an application. In doing so, it must be shown that the undertaking has suffered a loss, or may be about to suffer a loss, in consequence of the alleged violation of provisions governing the awarding of public contracts.
(3) The application is inadmissible, if
1. the applicant became aware of the violation of provisions governing the awarding of public contracts during the award procedure and did not object to the contracting entity without undue delay.
2. violations of provisions governing the awarding of public contracts which become apparent from the tender notice are not notified to the contracting entity by the end of the period specified in the notice for the submission of a tender or application.
3. violations of provisions governing the awarding of public contracts which only become apparent from the award documents are not notified to the contracting entity by the end of the period specified in the notice for the submission of a tender or application.
4. more than 15 calendar days have expired since receipt of notification from the contracting entity that it is unwilling to redress the complaint.
Sentence 1 shall not apply to an application under § 101b (1) no. 2 to have the award contract declared ineffective. § 101a para. 1 sentence 2 shall remain unaffected.
The competent investigating authority is as follows
Vergabekammer des Bundes
Villemombler Str. 76
D-53123 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: 0228 9499-0
Fax: 0228 9499-163
Email: vk@bundeskartellamt.bund.de
Web: http://www.bundeskartellamt.de/SharedDocs/Kontaktdaten/DE/Vergabekammern.html
The applicant is requested to clearly identify those parts of the request to participate (and any subsequent bid) containing company/business secrets. If this does not happen, the public procurement tribunal will assume consent to inspect the documents as required in the case of carrying out a review procedure (Section 165 (3) Act against Restraints of Competition (Competition Act - GWB)). As the awarding authority, FAIR is required to provide the public procurement tribunal with immediate access to the files when a review procedure is initiated (Section 163 (2) sentence 3 GWB).
Applicants/bidders have the right to demand that the Contracting authority comply with the provisions on the award procedure protecting bidders (Section 97 (6) GWB). Applicants/bidders with an interest in the public contract who believe their rights have been violated by non-compliance with the provisions governing the awarding of public contracts, must raise an objection about the violation to FAIR within ten calendar days (Section 160 (3) sentence 1 no. 1 GWB).
Violations known from the tender notice or tender documents must be claimed vis-a-vis FAIR before the time limit given for submission of applications (offers) (Section 160 (3) 1 No. 2 - 3 GWB).
If FAIR informs the applicant/bidder that it is unwilling to redress the objection, an application for review may then be filed with the public procurement tribunal above within 15 days of receipt of the notification (Section 160 (3) sentence 1 no. 4 GWB).
Bidders whose bids are not to be considered for the award of the contract will be notified before the awarding of the contract pursuant to Section 134 GWB. A contract may only be concluded 15 calendar days after FAIR has sent out this information. This period is ten calendar days when transmission is by fax or email. The period commences on the day following the dispatch of the information by FAIR. After this time period has expired, an award is possible even if a time limit pursuant to Section 160 (3) GWB has yet to expire. Therefore, in order to prevent an award, a request for review needs to have been served upon FAIR by the public procurement tribunal before the expiry of the time limit under Section 134 GWB.
Pursuant to Section 135 (1) and (2) GWB, the invalidity of an award can only be established if it has been asserted in the review procedure within 30 calendar days from the date on which there was notification on the conclusion of the agreement, though no later than six months after the agreement was concluded. If the Contracting authority published the tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, the time limit for claiming ineffectiveness shall expire 30 calendar days after the publication of the tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union.