In its judgment of 17 January 2019, the General Court of the EU dismissed the action for annulment filed by Proximus against the decision of the Council of the EU of 23 December 2016 to award the framework contract for the provision of cybersecurity services to several EU institutions, agencies and bodies. In this context, it ruled that the financial assessment method used by the Council in the aforementioned inter-institutional tender procedure served to select the most economically-advantageous tender.
More specifically, the General Court found that the aim of the decision to divide the contract into four service packages and award a score for each service package was to respond to the specific nature of the framework contract in question and the objectives pursued in that context. Moreover, the General Court stressed that, in the case at hand, it was relevant for the contracting authority to assess the tenders at the level of each service package in order to ensure that the candidates would allocate the necessary resources to them in their tender.
As regards the mathematical formula itself, the General Court ruled that it expressed the mathematical deviation between the financial tender made by a tenderer in respect of a given service package and that made by other tenderers in respect of each service package. The greater the deviation was, the higher the financial evaluation bonus or penalty became. In this respect, the General Court confirmed that the formula awarded, in all cases, the best financial score to the lowest tender in respect of each service package.
Please contact Pierre de Bandt, Peter Teerlinck or Raluca Gherghinaru for further information on this case and/or for general legal advice relating to EU public procurement.