The litigation team of Bondoc și Asociații has once again successfully assisted an economic operator in a dispute over a public procurement procedure organized for certain equipment items. The dispute raised complex legal and technical issues concerning the notion, the analysis and the actual proof of “similar experience” in determining the admissibility of a technical proposal submitted by a bidder in an award procedure.

Through its recent judgment, the Bucharest Court of Appeal has confirmed the decision of the National Council for the Settlement of Disputes, which had upheld the challenge filed by Bondoc si Asociatii/the economic operator, and had ruled that a contracting authority needs to observe its own limits set out in its tender documentation, to analyze or assess the fulfilment of the award requirements in a concrete and technical manner, and to properly justify its decision.

At the same time, it was confirmed that an analysis of the similitude between some of the tendered equipment by reference to the requirements set forth in the procurement procedure implies neither an identity of the equipment items, nor even a comparability between their name or size.

This new success in court reconfirms the particular expertise of Bondoc și Asociații in administrative disputes, specifically in the applicability of principles and rules in public procurement, areas of excellence in which the firm has gained numerous other victories, both in disputes before the courts and in the advisory projects it has carried on.

The team that handled this case on behalf of Bondoc și Asociații was composed of Ioana Katona, Partner, specialized in disputes specific to administrative litigation, including public procurement, Anca Radu, Associate and Gabriela Pop, Managing Associate.