Pre-contractual & Contractual referral

CE June 10, 2020, Minister of the Armed Forces, req. n ° 431194

The public purchaser freely determines the weighting of the criteria for judging the offers. However, it cannot legally use a weighting, in particular for the price criterion, which clearly would not allow, having regard to the characteristics of the market, to select the economically most advantageous offer. The control of the judge is however limited to a limited control concerning the relevance of the weighting chosen by the public purchaser.

CE June 9, 2020, Métropole Nice-Côte d'Azur, req. n ° 436922

In this case, the Council of State confirms its case-law according to which it is not for the judge of the pre-contractual summary procedure to control the competence of the public purchaser who launches the procedure. The sole circumstance that the procedure for the conclusion of the contract is initiated and conducted by a public person who is not yet competent to sign it does not result in the irregularity of the procedure for the conclusion of the procedure.

CE May 27, 2020, Sté Clean Building, n ° 435982

The Council of State now considers that within the framework of a pre-contractual or contractual summary procedure, the fact that the offer of the ousted competitor is irregular does not prevent it from being able to take advantage of the irregularity of the offer of the company awarded the contract to obtain the cancellation of the procedure or the contract. In this hypothesis, the judge in summary proceedings cannot invoke the irregularity of the offer of the ousted candidate and must examine the regularity of the offer of the successful candidate.

CE 4 October 2019, SMIDDEV, req. No. 421022

The Council of State clarifies the scope of the incomplete nature of an offer by considering that an offer of a candidate who does not include a prefectural approval necessary for the performance of the services of the market but not required by the regulation the consultation does not allow to declare the offer irregular.

CE 20 September 2019, Territorial Collectivity of Corsica, n ° 421075

The Council of State recalls that an offer that does not include all the documents or information required by the documents of the consultation is irregular and must be eliminated. The consultation rules may also be that for the rating of a criterion, an offer that does not contain certain information may be awarded a score of zero.

Teaching n ° 1: An offer that does not respect a mandatory prescription of the regulation of the consultation is irregular

The texts and the case law recall the mandatory nature of the consultation rules

CE 18 September 2019, Community of communes of Ile-Rousse-Balagne, req. No. 430368

The Council of State reiterates the conditions under which a local authority or a public cooperative institution may apply for the award of a public contract and the scope of the judge's review of the summary proceedings in the event of a dispute with the from a competitor who has been ousted.

Teaching n ° 1: a public institution can be a candidate for the signature of a contract subject to the respect of the principle of specialty

The Council of State has already had occasion to recall that the public persons can be candidates for the attribution of a contract of the public order, in the same way and under the same conditions as a private enterprise (EC, opinion , 8 November 2000, Jean-Louis Bernard Consultants, Rec., 492).

EC, 12 June 2019, Ministry of the Armed Forces, req. No. 427 397

In connection with the signing of a framework agreement with purchase orders, an unsuccessful candidate obtained from the Toulon Administrative Court the cancellation of the procedure on the grounds in particular of the absence of a maximum amount previously set by the buyer. . This order was annulled by the Council of State and is the subject of our comment.

Teaching n ° 1: the pre-contractual summary for the security and defense markets is not that of Article L. 551-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice

If it is customary to always associate the provisions of Article L. 551-1 of the Code of Administrative Justice with the pre-contractual summary, we must not lose sight of the II of Article L. 551-2 the same code. In fact, for contracts relating to defense or security matters, the unsuccessful candidate must refer the case to the pre-contractual judge on the basis of the provisions of Articles L. 551-6 and L. 551-7 of the Administrative Justice Code. .

CE Mar. 13, 2019, Sté Sepur, req.no. 425191

In this case, the Conseil d'Etat considers that the abnormally low price of an offer is assessed in relation to its overall price and the mere fact of proposing a financial offer that refrains from charging certain services is not sufficient. in itself to consider the offer as abnormally low.

Teaching n ° 1:

Whatever the procurement procedure and the type of contract, it is the responsibility of the contracting authority, who finds that an offer appears abnormally low, to request from the author all the details and justifications that would explain the price proposed in application of Article 60-I of Decree No. 2016-360 of 25 March 2016 on public procurement. If the clarifications and justifications provided are not sufficient to ensure that the proposed price is not regarded as clearly undervalued and thus likely to compromise the proper performance of the contract, it is then up to the bidder to reject his bid, except undermine the equality of candidates for the award of a public contract.

CE 25 January 2019, BEAH, No. 423159

The Conseil d'Etat considers that, pursuant to Article L127-6 of the French Insurance Code, the clause inserted in a public contract of civil liability insurance whereby the insurer undertakes to take charge of the defense or representation of his insured person in any judicial or administrative proceedings, where such care is exercised at the same time in his own interest, does not constitute a legal protection insurance clause.

THIS January 25, 2019, Dauphin Telecom Company, No. 421844

The Council of State lays down the rule according to which the offer of the company whose plan of judiciary judicial reorganization foresees a duration of clearance of the liabilities lower than the duration of the market can not be excluded from the procedure of auction .

The Council of State also specifies that in the context of a competitive procedure with negotiation, in the event that the buyer has not limited the number of candidates admitted to participate in the procedure, the verification of the prohibitions to tender can intervene at any time and at the latest before awarding the contract to the only candidate to whom the buyer intends to award the contract.