Judgment of the General Court (Eighth Chamber) of 5 October 2012 — Evropaïki Dynamiki v Commission

(Case T-591/08)

Public service contracts — Tendering procedure — Provision of information technology services — Selection of the tenderer as second contractor in the cascade procedure — Action for annulment — Grounds for exclusion from the tendering procedure — Conflict of interests — Duty to state reasons — Manifest error of assessment — Equal treatment — Non-contractual liability

1.                     EU public contracts — Tender procedure — Award of contracts — Exclusion of tenderers seriously in default of their obligations under another contract — Condition — Tenderers having been subject to an administrative penalty under Article 96(1) of the Financial Regulation (Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Arts 93(1)(f), 94(c) and 96(1)(b)) (see paras 34-37, 40)

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 (Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Arts 89(1) and 97(1); Commission Regulation No 2342/2002, Arts 135 to 138) (see paras 53-55, 92, 93)

3.                     Proceedings — Application initiating proceedings — Formal requirements — Summary statement of pleas — Simple reference to annexes — Inadmissibility (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Art. 44(1)) (see para. 66)

4.                     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 — Obligation to communicate, following a written request, the characteristics and relative advantages of the tender accepted and the name of the tenderer (Art. 253 EC; Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Art. 100(2); Commission Regulation No 2342/2002, Art. 149) (see paras 76-79, 130, 137, 157)

5.                     EU public contracts — Conclusion of a contract following a call for tenders — Criteria for selecting candidates — Assessment of the candidates’ capacity to provide specified services — Award criteria — Comparative assessment of the particular characteristics and merits of individual tenders — Distinct operations and different rules (Council Regulation No 1605/2002, Art. 97(1) and (2); Commission Regulation No 2342/2002, Art. 138) (see para. 110)

6.                     EU public contracts — Conclusion of a contract following a call for tenders — Discretion of the institutions — Judicial review — Limits (see para. 158)

7.                     Proceedings — Introduction of new pleas during the proceedings — Conditions — New plea — Concept (Rules of Procedure of the General Court, Arts 44(1)(c) and 48(2)) (see para. 190)

8.                     Non-contractual liability — Conditions — Unlawfulness — Damage — Causal link — One of the conditions not satisfied — Claim for compensation dismissed in its entirety (Art. 288, second para., EC) (see para. 199)

Re:

Operative part

The Court: