The recent Judgment of the European Court of Justice (Grand Chamber) of 1 March 2011, in case C-236/09 (Association Belge des Consommateurs Test-Achats ASBL and others v. Conseil des Ministres) imposes an absolute rejection of the use of sex as a determining factor in the assessment of risk and...

This short note on methodology has been extracted from my PhD thesis, which deals with the relationship between public procurement and competition policy at the EU level (a reworked version has been recently published as Public Procurement and the EU Competition Rules, Oxford: Hart Publishing,...

This paper analyzes the rules and administrative practice concerning the selection, weighting and application of award criteria in public procurement procedures under Spanish law. It also touches upon the issue of challenges against award decisions, and the screening of abnormally low bids after...

This revised foreword to a special issue of e-competitions explores the EU competition law implications of public procurement activities. More specifically, it tries to highlight how bid rigging seems pervasive in the public procurement setting despite increased enforcement efforts (a situation...

The development of a more competition-oriented public procurement system is possible, on the basis of the principle of competition that is embedded in the EC public procurement Directives. This paper explores the existence of the principle of competition, roughly delimits its scope, and broadly...

On February 7, 2011, the Spanish National Competition Authority (Comisión Nacional de la Competencia, CNC) published its Guide on Public Procurement and Competition with the goal of offering practical recommendations that contribute to the promotion of effective competition in public...

Competition is the best means to ensure efficient allocation of resources. Hence, the achievement of value for money depends crucially on the development of public procurement activities in highly competitive markets. However, public procurement can generate significant (negative) effects on...

The use of soft law instruments is pervasive in the field of EU competition policy. This poses significant legal challenges derived from the progressive ‘hardening’ of these regulatory tools by the European Courts as a result of the application of the general principles of EU law. The...

Procurement activities conducted by the public buyer are very relevant for the proper working of the markets. Hence, the market activities of the public buyer should comply with the requirements of competition law - ie should not restrict or distort competitive outcomes derived from free market...

Block exemption regulations (BER) survived the modernisation of EC competition law. According to the European Commission and some commentators, BER have a major role to play in the system instituted by Regulation 1/2003. Others are more critical and consider that BER are hard to nest within the...