ARTICLE
20 April 2018

New Public Procurement Legislation – Practical Aspects From A Supplier Perspective

The new Public Procurement Act (the PPA) en­tered in­to force in 2017 and con­tains plen­ty of sig­nif­i­cant changes com­pared to pre­vi­ous leg­is­la­tion that are nec­es­sary for sup­pli­ers to be aware of.
Sweden Government, Public Sector

The new Public Procurement Act (the PPA) en­tered in­to force in 2017 and con­tains plen­ty of sig­nif­i­cant changes com­pared to pre­vi­ous leg­is­la­tion that are nec­es­sary for sup­pli­ers to be aware of.

Amendments in pub­lic con­tracts

There have pre­vi­ous­ly been no spe­cif­ic rules in the PPA re­gard­ing amend­ments of con­tracts. In the new PPA, how­ev­er, there are de­tailed rules in this re­gard. If a con­tract is amend­ed in breach of the PPA, the con­tract can be de­clared in­ef­fec­tive by the ad­min­is­tra­tive courts. Naturally, it is very im­por­tant for a sup­pli­er to be fa­mil­iar with these new rules in or­der to as­sess whether or not a pro­posed amend­ment is per­mit­ted. The new rules al­so ap­ply to con­tracts en­tered in­to be­fore 2017, which means that all ex­ist­ing pub­lic con­tracts are sub­ject to this new leg­is­la­tion.

Abnormally low pric­ing

Abnormally low ten­ders have pre­vi­ous­ly been pos­si­ble to ac­cept as it was up to the con­tract­ing au­thor­i­ty to de­cide whether or not an ab­nor­mal­ly low ten­der should be dis­card­ed. However, the new PPA states that ab­nor­mal­ly low ten­ders must be dis­card­ed un­less the sup­pli­er can pro­vide a sat­is­fac­to­ry ex­pla­na­tion. Hence sup­pli­ers must ex­pect ques­tions from con­tract­ing au­thor­i­ties re­gard­ing low pric­ing more of­ten than be­fore. It is there­fore im­per­a­tive for sup­pli­ers to know what ex­pla­na­tions are con­sid­ered sat­is­fac­to­ry and what ev­i­dence might be re­quired to sup­port them. The ad­min­is­tra­tive courts have al­ready de­cid­ed a num­ber of cas­es re­gard­ing ab­nor­mal­ly low ten­ders, and more cas­es are sure to come.

Case law

Public pro­cure­ment is an area of law which to a large ex­tent is gov­erned by case law. Due to the many changes in the new PPA, the need for fur­ther le­gal prece­dents is ob­vi­ous. New in­ter­est­ing case law can be ex­pect­ed in 2018.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Mondaq uses cookies on this website. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies as set out in our Privacy Policy.

Learn More