Duty to inform
The contracting authority has a duty of care when examining and evaluating tenders. This includes the duty to correctly establish facts, request relevant information and conduct careful examination.
OEKO-TEX is not the same as EU-Ecolabel — and the contracting authority is not there to repair your tender
The Council of State dismisses an extreme-urgency suspension brought by a furniture bidder whose tender was rejected because, for fabrics requiring 'EU-Ecolabel or equivalent', it offered only OEKO-TEX Standard 100, ruling that proving equivalence is the bidder's job — not the contracting authority's.
Applicant loses on urgency — but the State still pays all costs for misleading reference to article 15 of the 17 June 2013 Act
The Council of State rejects an urgent suspension request against a non-selection for a legal-representation contract of the Immigration Office because such contracts fall outside the 17 June 2016 Procurement Act under article 28 and therefore also outside the 17 June 2013 Remedies Act — but orders the State to pay all costs because its notification letter wrongly referred to article 15 of that Act and misled the applicant.
De Havilland knew about the award in early January but waited a month too long — UDN claim time-barred
The Council of State rejects De Havilland's suspension request against the 'Green Aircraft' defence contract awarded to the Sabena/Sonaca consortium, because De Havilland had sufficient knowledge of the award decision by 6 January 2026 but only filed on 5 February — too late.
Wanneer de aanbestedende overheid de bestreden gunningsbeslissing intrekt, verliest de verzoeker zijn belang bij de schorsingsvordering — maar de kosten vallen ten laste van de overheid
De Raad van State verwerpt de vordering tot schorsing van de gunning van een overheidsopdracht voor communicatiediensten voor Brugel als onontvankelijk, omdat de aanbestedende overheid de bestreden gunningsbeslissing heeft ingetrokken met terugwerkende kracht, zodat de verzoeker niet langer benadeeld is of dreigt te worden — maar de procedurekosten worden ten laste van de overheid gelegd, die door de intrekking als de in het ongelijk gestelde partij wordt beschouwd.
Het gunningsverslag pas na de gunningsbeslissing meedelen is een motiveringsgebrek
De Raad van State schorst een gunningsbeslissing omdat de aanbestedende overheid het gunningsverslag — waarop de motivering volledig steunde — niet gelijktijdig met de beslissing heeft meegedeeld aan de niet-gekozen inschrijvers.
Even without a bid, you can still demand the paperwork: intermunicipal associations must disclose everything, not only their 'public task'
The Council of State annuls the Flemish FOI appeals body's inadmissibility ruling against Proximus's transparency request on the Fluvius-Telenet NetCo deal, because intermunicipal associations qualify as 'local authorities' under the Governance Decree and are therefore required to disclose all their administrative documents — not only those relating to a 'public task'.
An unreasoned notification is not an unreasoned decision — and that distinction sinks your appeal
The Council of State dismisses an appeal against the cancellation of a vehicle-towing tender because the contested decision itself was formally reasoned, even though the bidder only saw those reasons four months later — a tardiness that costs the police zone the procedural costs but does not affect the legality of the decision.
A Flemish licence for non-urgent reclining patient transport doesn't grant mutual recognition for seated transport in Brussels — if Flanders doesn't regulate that activity, it has nothing to transfer
An ambulance company with a Flemish licence for reclining patient transport loses a Brussels framework contract for seated patient transport in light medical vehicles, because its provisional GGC accreditation expired during the procurement procedure and its definitive accreditation was only notified after the award decision — bad timing, says the Council of State, but no illegality.
The government communicates only the 'eviction' — hiding the award in the same decision. The Council of State breaks through this formalism.
The Council of State rejects the Belgian State's inadmissibility objection: a rejected tenderer who challenges only the 'eviction letter' procedurally attacks the entire award decision contained within it — even if the award itself was never formally communicated.
'The Price Bureau looked at it' is not a price check — especially not when that opinion itself asks for your own analysis
The Council of State suspends an award by the Walloon Region to Colas Belgium for road works in Biercée because the contracting authority motivated its price check with the bare statement that 'the Price Bureau intervened' — while that bureau's own opinion expressly required a separate analysis from the road directorate that nowhere appears in the file.
If you don't check your e-Notification dashboard, the contracting authority can reject your bid — 'I didn't get the email' is no defence
The Council of State dismisses the extreme-urgency challenge by Tectum Constructors against the award to SCTD for the roofs of the Mons Music Academy: when the procurement is run via e-Notification, a bidder who does not consult its restricted file on that official platform cannot later claim it missed a price-justification request — the authority is not required to prove that the bidder actually received or opened the invitation.
Pointing wrongly to 'an appeal to the Council of State' in your rejection letter cannot create that Council's jurisdiction — and costs you your procedure indemnity
The Council of State declares itself incompetent to hear Philippe Lesur's extreme-urgency challenge to the award of a scrap contract to BST, because Bruxelles-Energie — a cooperative in which Agence Bruxelles-Propreté holds only 40% of compartment A — is not an 'administrative authority', and immediately penalises Bruxelles-Energie for wrongly referring to the Council in its rejection letter by stripping it of its procedure indemnity.
Intervening to defend your contract costs you €150 even if the authority withdraws — Liantis learns it at ONE
When ONE withdrew its award to Provikmo (now Liantis) after an initial suspension, applicant SPMT received €1,140 in costs — but Liantis, which had intervened to defend its contract, must bear its own €150 intervention fee.
No annulment filed, but still €920 awarded: how an implicit withdrawal via municipal council deliberation saves Mignone from 'formalisme excessif'
Mignone obtained a suspension against Binche but never filed an annulment — yet still receives €920 in costs because Binche's municipal council deliberation halting the procurement procedure counts as an implicit withdrawal, and the Council holds it would be 'formalisme excessif' to require an additional annulment.
Request €840 in procedural costs, get €700: a withdrawal blocks any uplift above the base amount
After OTW withdrew its award to WOLF OIL, BELUB requested €840 in procedural costs — the Council awards only the base amount of €700 because article 67, §2(3) of the Regent's Decree excludes any uplift when the contested act is withdrawn.
The 60-day deadline runs from dispatch — not from receipt, not from a double notification that wasn't required here
The Council of State declares an annulment action against an award decision inadmissible because it was filed on 3 February 2016 against a decision sent by ordinary mail on 3 December 2015 — three days late.
An irregular bidder gets only the extract on its own exclusion – not the award decision behind the winner
Heyrman-De Roeck is excluded for an unaccepted price justification and wants to scrutinise the price justification of the winner – who won with a price 100,000 euros higher – but the Council of State explains that the law of 17 June 2013 only entitles an irregular bidder to an extract setting out the grounds for its own exclusion, and that scrutiny of abnormally HIGH prices may anyway be more lenient than scrutiny of abnormally LOW prices.
A university-college non-profit applying public procurement law does not thereby become an 'administrative authority' — the Council of State has no jurisdiction
ITZU Cleaning went to the Council of State because its rejection letter said so, but UC Leuven and UC Limburg are private non-profits without unilateral binding decision-making power towards third parties — the Council has no jurisdiction, although UCLL is ordered to pay the costs because it misled the applicant.
It's the authority's job to send you the full motivation — not yours to request it
The Council of State suspends the award of a stucco-restoration contract at Gaasbeek Castle because the award report was sent with redacted figures and assessments — with only one point separating winner and runner-up.
An amicable settlement during a document-access procedure: mutual waiver of procedural costs is valid, but the EUR 200 filing fee stays with the withdrawing party
The Council of State records Energys' withdrawal after it reached an amicable settlement with the municipality of Habay-la-Neuve over the refused communication of tender documents for a biomass district-heating contract — a mutual waiver of procedural costs is accepted, but the EUR 200 filing fee remains payable by the withdrawing party.
Waiting for the full evaluation report does not stop the suspension clock from running
The Council of State dismisses as out of time an extreme-urgency suspension against the designation of a preferred bidder in a PPP negotiation procedure: the fifteen-day period had already started to run on 27 November 2017, even though the temporary partnership only obtained the complete evaluation report on 16 January 2018.
You can't challenge specifications you only downloaded on the bid opening day
The Council of State declares INSTELE's appeal inadmissible: contradictions between the contract notice and the specifications (3 vs 24 months duration, 6 vs 7 December as opening date) do not turn the specifications into a challengeable 'decision' — INSTELE knew of the tender from 22 November but only downloaded the specifications on 6 December and asked no questions.
Withdrawing a tender notice without clear communication costs you €1,500 — even when the Council declares the action 'devoid of purpose'
The Council of State finds that an extreme-urgency action against a launch decision by the municipality of Dilbeek is devoid of purpose because the municipality had already withdrawn the decision ten days before the action — yet it orders Dilbeek to pay €1,500 in costs because that withdrawal had never been clearly communicated to the bidders.
Contracting authority withdraws its award after the Council suspends? The case becomes moot — and you still pay 700 euros in procedural costs
After a suspension order against the award of a lot for legal recovery services, ORES Assets and RESA withdrew their award decisions; the Council of State declares the annulment action moot, lifts the suspension, but charges the procedural costs to the contracting authorities.
A case ending without object still costs 700 euros — and when there are multiple applicants, there are clear rules for splitting the indemnity
On the same day and in the same context as arrest 236.111, ORES Assets and RESA also withdrew their award decision for lot 8 (Mons); the Council of State declares the action moot, but explains how the procedural indemnity is shared among four jointly-filing applicants.
Eight references from your Swiss supplier? Without a written commitment, none of them count
The Council of State refuses to select Medtradex because the bidder could not produce three of its own references for a detergent dispensing system, and the references of its Swiss supplier Borer Chemie were unusable without a written commitment under article 74 of the 2011 procurement-placement royal decree.
Certificates of good execution are not in principle confidential — appellants can request access when challenging the selection
In an annulment procedure against a €27 million award, the Council of State holds that certificates of good execution are not secret documents and reopens the debates so the parties can examine those documents — under strict conditions.
'The prices are confidential' is not a valid reason to redact them from an award decision
The Council of State suspends the award to Witteveen+Bos of an ecological restoration contract, because the Flemish Region had redacted both the bid prices and the score per award criterion from the award report it sent — leaving only total scores — and because handing the unredacted version over later does not cure that lack of formal motivation.
The National Lottery claims it withdrew the award decision itself — but without proof, the Council of State annulled anyway
After a suspension in extreme urgency the National Lottery let the 30-day window to request continuation of the procedure expire unused, later claimed the award decision had been 'withdrawn' but produced no document evidencing that — result: the Council of State annulled the decision for the sake of legal certainty.
A red flag in DIGIFLOW is not an exclusion decision — call the tax office before kicking out the lowest bidder
The Council of State suspends in extreme urgency the award decision of BMWB after AIB-Vinçotte — the lowest bidder — was excluded on the basis of a DIGIFLOW certificate contradicted by positive certificates from both before and after the same date.
A 'service provider's declaration' is not a logo on your reference sheet — it must be clear, signed and attributable
The Council of State upholds the disqualification of an architects' consortium from Uccle's renovation contract because their reference for a private client was not accompanied by a real 'service provider's declaration' — an undated 'preamble' and a fact sheet bearing only the Archi 2000 logo are insufficient.
An authority need not publish its estimate — and need not separately warn the previous contractor
The Council of State rejects the urgent suspension by a supplier who filed no bid and complained afterwards that the City of Ghent had not included its estimate in the notice and had not warned her personally about the new fruit and vegetables framework agreement.
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This page shows all rulings of the Council of State (Belgium's supreme administrative court) on duty to inform in public procurement. Each ruling is summarized by TenderWolf in plain language, with a legal lesson and a practical question to ask yourself. View all rulings →