On 19 April 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) ruled that Directive 2004/17 coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors (“Utilities Directive”[1]) does not preclude Member States from adopting national rules which do not allow for periodic review of the price of a contract awarded by a contracting authority further to the carrying out of a public procurement process. In this case the services for which price review was sought related to services for the cleaning and maintenance of premises and other areas open to the public, ancillary to the performance of activities covered by the special sectors of the Utilities Directive.
Furthermore, the CJEU expressed the view that such national price review rules could run contrary to the underlying principles of the Utilities Directive; namely the principle of equal treatment and the obligation of transparency. Referring to the approach adopted by the European Commission, the court stressed that contract price is an important element in the considerations taken into account by a contracting authority in awarding a tender to an economic operator.
Case cited: Case C-152/17, Consorzio Italian Management e Catania Multiservizi ECLI:EU:C:2018:264
[1] The current utilities sector Directive is 2014/25/EU
