Case C‑518/17

Stefan Rudigier

(Request for a preliminary ruling from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Public procurement — Public passenger transport services by rail and by road — Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 — Article 5(1) — Award of public service contracts — Article 7(2) — Obligation to publish certain information in the Official Journal of the European Union at least one year before the launch of the procedure — Consequences of non-publication — Annulment of the call for tenders — Directive 2014/24/EU — Article 27(1) — Article 47(1) — Directive 2014/25/EU — Article 45(1) — Article 66(1) — Contract notice)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber), 20 September 2018

1. Approximation of laws — Procedures for the award of public service, public supply and public works contracts and public contracts in the water, energy, transport and telecommunications sectors — Directives 2004/17 and 2004/18 — Temporal application — Decision of the contracting authority selecting the type of procedure to be followed for the award adopted after the repeal of the directives — Inapplicability of the directives

   (European Parliament and Council Directives 2004/17, 2004/18, 2014/24, Arts 90 and 91, and 2014/25, Arts 106 and 107)

2. Transport — Public passenger transport services by rail and by road — Regulation No 1370/2007 — Award of contracts for public passenger transport services by bus — Obligation to publish certain information in the Official Journal of the European Union before the launch of the procedure — Scope — Applicability to contracts awarded in accordance with Directives 2014/24 and 2014/25 — Consequences of non-publication — Annulment of the call for tenders — Conditions

   (European Parliament and Council Regulation No 1370/2007, Art. 7(2); European Parliament and Council Directives 2014/24 and 2014/25)

1.  See the text of the decision.

   (see paras 42, 43)

2.  Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1370/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and by road and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) Nos 1191/69 and 1107/70 must be interpreted as meaning that:

   –

   the obligation to provide prior information laid down in that provision applies to contracts for public transport services by bus which are in principle awarded in accordance with the procedures provided for by Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC or by Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on procurement by entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors and repealing Directive 2004/17/EC;

   –	an infringement of that obligation to provide prior information does not entail the annulment of the call for tenders concerned, provided that the principles of equivalence, effectiveness and equal treatment are complied with, which is for the referring court to ascertain.

   (see paras 53, 72, operative part)