Order of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 20 November 2019 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Consiglio di Stato — Italy) — Indaco Service Soc. coop. sociale, acting in its own name and as agent of Coop. sociale il Melograno v Ufficio Territoriale del Governo Taranto

(Case C-522/18) (1)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Article 99 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court - Public procurement - Directive 2014/24/EU - Article 57(4)(c) and (g) - Award of public service contracts - Optional grounds for exclusion - Grave professional misconduct - Calling into question the economic operator’s integrity - Prior contract - Performance - Breaches - Termination - Judicial remedy - Contracting authority’s assessment of the contractual breach - Preclusion until the end of the judicial proceedings)

(2020/C 45/06)

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Consiglio di Stato

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: Indaco Service Soc. coop. sociale, acting in its own name and as agent of Coop. sociale il Melograno

Defendant: Ufficio Territoriale del Governo Taranto

Intervener: Cometa Società Cooperativa Sociale

Operative part of the order

Article 57(4)(c) and (g) of Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC must be interpreted as precluding rules of national law pursuant to which an action before the courts against a decision to terminate a public contract, taken by a contracting authority on account of ‘grave professional misconduct’ arising during performance of the contract, prevents the contracting authority which issues a new call for tenders from excluding an operator, at the stage of selecting tenderers, on the basis of an assessment of that operator’s reliability.

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(1)  OJ C 436, 3.12.2018.