Price investigation
Price investigation is the procedure whereby the contracting authority analyses and compares submitted prices. This includes checking for abnormally low prices, verifying unit prices and assessing the pricing formula.
'Our subcontractor has nearly 60 years of experience' does not justify a paint output of 135 m²/day
The Council of State rejects COMABAT's suspension request because the social housing company Sambre et Biesme rightly found the offered paint prices abnormally low: the subcontractor's claimed output of 135 m²/day was more than double what both an internal technical manager and an independent architect considered realistic.
Ten new waste trucks for nearly the same price as three new and seven old ones — still not an abnormally low price?
The Council of State rejects the claim of the incumbent waste collector that the winning tenderer cannot possibly offer a comparable total price with ten new trucks when the claimant used only three new and seven depreciated ones, because the total price exceeded the estimate, deviated less than 15% from the average, and truck costs were not a visible line item.
A scoring scale from 'weak' to 'excellent' without further explanation — prima facie transparent enough
The Council of State rejects the suspension request of a postal services company challenging the award of a framework agreement, ruling that a qualitative evaluation method with an ordinal scale (weak/moderate/good/very good/excellent) is sufficiently transparent when the specifications contain evaluation elements and technical provisions that define the framework.
One failed price justification is enough — everything else becomes irrelevant
The Council of State rejects a contractor's claim after its tender was declared irregular due to abnormally low unit prices — because the price justification for two undisputedly non-negligible items was already insufficient on its own, all other challenges became moot.
Five arguments, zero hits: why a losing towing company runs into the limits of its own case
The Council of State rejects all five grounds raised by a towing company challenging the award of a towing contract to its competitor — from a missing enterprise number to alleged environmental violations and a disputed price investigation.
Kerkfabriek verzuimde abnormaal lage eenheidsprijs te onderzoeken bij dakreparatie
De Raad vernietigde de gunning: hoewel de kerkfabriek in het initiële rapport een eenheidsprijs als abnormaal laag had aangemerkt, onderzocht zij deze niet opnieuw bij de herziene gunningsbeslissing.
Stad Brussel schendt zorgvuldigheidsbeginsel bij prijs- en kostenonderzoek voor asfalteringswerken
De Raad vernietigde de gunningsbeslissing omdat de stad ten onrechte geen zorgvuldig prijsonderzoek uitvoerde: zij verhoogde het wettelijk afwijkingspercentage van 15% naar 25%, waardoor geen prijsbevraging bij de gekozen inschrijver plaatsvond.
Negative prices for meal vouchers — 'that's how the sector works' is not sufficient motivation
The Council of State suspends the award of a framework agreement for electronic meal vouchers to Edenred Belgium, because the price investigation motivation was too generic — the contracting authority justified all three tenders globally based on sector characteristics, without individually explaining why the winning tenderer's specific price justification was acceptable.
What the specifications say, you must price — even if you think it doesn't belong there
A tenderer who expressly confirms during price clarification that coordination of works in the other lots is not included in its offer is rightly declared substantially irregular — even if it believes the specifications do not require such coordination.
With only two tenders, one is not a benchmark for the other — and an 'expectation' in the specifications is not an essential minimum requirement
The Council rejects three grounds: a large price difference on one item does not suffice to establish an abnormal price when the authority conducted a substantiated general price investigation, specifying that one 'expects' something to be fully digital is not a pass/fail minimum requirement, and selective criticism of sub-elements of the reasoning does not undermine a global assessment.
A €10 million administrative centre awarded without price investigation — and the BAFO not even checked
The Council of State annuls the award of a Design, Build & Maintain contract for an administrative centre in Ronse because neither the award report nor the administrative file shows that a price investigation was conducted on the initial tenders or on the winning tenderer's BAFO.
0.5% screening threshold in price investigation passes legality test
A contracting authority may apply a weight threshold during price investigation to select non-negligible items, provided the threshold is carefully established and stays within the bounds of reasonableness.
A towing company whose permit doesn't allow night work complains the competitor has the same problem — but that actually weakens the argument
The Council of State rejects the suspension request of a towing company challenging the award of a framework agreement for towing and vehicle storage services, ruling that a contracting authority need not question the adequacy of submitted environmental permits for 24-hour service, especially when the applicant's own permit has the same limitation.
Picking up litter at 6.8 km/h — the tenderer promises it, but the authority doesn't buy it
The Council of State rejects the suspension request of a highway maintenance contractor whose offer was excluded for abnormal pricing, because the proposed productivity — 163 km of litter picking in three days, or 6.8 km/h while walking and bending — is prima facie unrealistic.
Adding up fee percentages as if they were euro amounts and then calling eight out of ten items 'negligible' — while each item accounts for 10% of the price criterion
The Council of State suspends the award of a framework contract for designers because the municipality of Evergem treated fee percentages as absolute amounts in its price investigation, and labelled eight of ten items as negligible while each represented a sub-award criterion worth 7 out of 70 points.
Your BAFO says the opposite of what you explained verbally? The BAFO prevails — and the contracting authority's silence during an earlier tender round is not approval
The Council of State rejects the suspension of the award of a framework agreement for the LON network at Antwerp Central Station, because a clause in the BAFO placing all costs except faulty maintenance on the contracting authority is incompatible with the required Full Omnium — even though the tenderer verbally stated the opposite.
Setting the threshold at 2% and then ignoring it: the Council rebukes the Walloon Region
The Council of State suspends the award of a dam renovation study because the Walloon Region treated posts worth 0.57% and 0.76% of the tender as non-negligible, despite having defined non-negligible posts as those exceeding 2% of the total tender amount — a clear violation of its own rules.
Night medical mail delivery Liège: price verification by hospital purchasing central sufficiently motivated despite succinct formulation
The Council of State rejects a challenge against the award of a contract for night medical mail delivery in the province of Liège, because the contracting authority — acting as purchasing central for four hospitals — conducted a genuine and concrete price verification under Article 36 of the Placement Royal Decree, and the decision's motivation, though succinct and allusive due to confidentiality requirements, sufficiently demonstrates that the chosen tenderer's prices are not abnormal.
Road maintenance Baelen: price justification based on subcontractor offer for different quantities is manifestly unreasonable
The Council of State annuls the award of a road maintenance framework agreement because the contracting authority could not accept the winning tenderer's price justification for three bituminous surface treatment items — a mere reference to a subcontractor's offer without detailed substantiation is insufficient, and the subcontractor calculated prices based on 1,000 m² while the bill of quantities specified 100 m², meaning the unit prices for the bill quantities were not justified.
Framework agreement for public cloud Copernicus data: competitive advantage from prior involvement in earth observation programme is legitimate
The Council of State rejects a cloud service provider's challenge against the award of an IaaS framework agreement for Copernicus earth observation data, finding that the winning tenderer's competitive advantage — having the data already available on its cloud through involvement in the Copernicus programme — is legitimate, the price investigation for intellectual services with wide price margins was diligent, and the lower technical quality score was attributable to the applicant's own failure to provide concrete information on scalability and data capacity.
Not examining the cheapest tender while you budgeted for 25% indexation — that's not price verification
The Council of State annuls the award of an auditor contract by the Walloon agency AViQ because the contracting authority extensively analyzed the more expensive tenders but said nothing about the remarkably low price of the winner — which was at the same level as the previous contract, despite the estimate including 25% indexation.
Missing unit prices in bill of quantities does not constitute substantial irregularity when total prices per item are filled in
The Council of State rejects the annulment appeal against the award of a construction contract for an agri-food platform in Gambia, ruling that the failure to fill in unit prices in the bill of quantities does not constitute a substantial irregularity when total prices per item are filled in and unit prices can be derived through simple division.
A mere price confirmation does not constitute an adequate price investigation when the tender price is significantly lower
The Council of State suspends the award of a transactional printing contract because the contracting authority failed to conduct an adequate general price investigation on the significantly lower total price of the chosen tenderer, and limited itself to a meaningless price confirmation for a remarkably low unit price instead of initiating a special investigation into abnormal prices.
Rejection of extreme urgency suspension against award of renovation works for Park Groot Schijn caravan site — correction of material error in item 50 (heat pump boilers, typo '4' instead of '1' on numeric keypad) correctly applied under art. 34 KB — material error may also be discovered and corrected during price investigation — motivation in award report and supplementary email sufficient
The Council of State rejected the extreme urgency suspension claim by TM L.-H. against the City of Antwerp's award of renovation works for the Park Groot Schijn caravan site (Deurne) to NV A., where the contracting authority correctly corrected a purely material error in item 50 (heat pump boilers) under Article 34 KB — the tenderer had typed '4' instead of '1' when copying price data from its subcontractor's offer (keys directly above each other on the numeric keypad), making the unit price approximately four times higher than intended, and the Council held that a material error discovered during price investigation may still be corrected.
Rejection of extreme urgency suspension against irregularity declaration for framework agreement bank works Resilient Westhoek — price justification rightly rejected due to missing overhead on study portion, unsubstantiated unit prices and post factum justification — negligible items correctly delineated using 0.25% threshold
The Council of State rejected the extreme urgency suspension claim by TM B.-G.D. against the Vlaamse Waterweg's declaration of their offer for the 'Resilient Westhoek – Bank Works' framework agreement (€30 million) as substantially irregular, as the authority did not exceed its assessment margin: the 0.25% threshold for negligible items was carefully determined, the grounds for rejecting the price justification were sound, and arguments not included in the actual price justification were post factum justifications the authority need not consider.
Suspension of award of insurance brokerage pooling contract for Flemish government entities – statement of reasons for price investigation is mere boilerplate: estimate redacted, justification elements not concretely assessed, reasons communicated ex post via observations and intervention request
The Council of State suspended the award by the Flemish Community of an insurance brokerage pooling contract for Flemish government entities to NV A., because the first limb of the single ground was serious: the statement of reasons for the price investigation in the award report was mere boilerplate — the estimate was redacted, the three justification elements from the price justification were adopted without concrete assessment, and the redaction of essential reasons in the version communicated to the applicant violated the formal statement of reasons obligation.
A 37% discount 'verified' with one boilerplate sentence? That is not a price review.
The Council of State suspends an award because the Walloon Region failed to concretely verify the 30-40% discount on the combined bid of the winner — the boilerplate line 'after verification, the prices are normal and acceptable' is dismissed as a stock phrase.
From a +96,000 euro estimate to a -8,000 euro bid: 'market evolution' is not enough as price justification
IDELUX awarded the valorisation of CUA compost to Valodirect at a negative price of -8,000 euros, although IDELUX itself had estimated the contract at +96,000 euros — the Council of State suspended because the reasoning was limited to general observations about an evolving market, without concretely explaining how the winning bidder could actually operate profitably at those specific volumes.
Optimistic soil reuse (60%) without screening or soil improvement costs does not justify abnormally low earthworks prices
The Council of State rejects the challenge against the exclusion of a tender for sewer and road works because the price justification for the total price and eleven earthworks items was rightly rejected: the tenderer assumed an insufficiently substantiated 60% soil reuse rate without costs for screening or soil improvement.
A price of €0 is always suspicious, €1 usually isn't — and that difference justifies different investigations
The Council of State rejects the extreme urgency suspension: the fact that Bruxelles-Propreté excluded bailiff M.L.'s bid (with four items at €0) via the strict price investigation of Article 36 and Exelia-Alterius's bid (with €1 and €15 per file) via the lighter verification of Article 35 is not unequal treatment — €0 is, per established case law, always an apparently abnormal price, whereas €1 is not necessarily.
Price justification for NMBS tilting poles passes scrutiny: legal presumption of abnormal prices does not apply in simplified negotiated procedure
The Council of State rejects the suspension request because the legal presumption of abnormal prices under Article 44 §4 of the Royal Decree of 18 June 2017 does not apply to the simplified negotiated procedure, and the NMBS carefully examined and accepted the price justification of the awarded joint venture for multifunctional tilting poles on sound grounds.
Second challenge against NMBS tilting poles rejected: distinction between negotiation and price justification, selective special price investigation permitted
The Council of State also rejects the application of another tenderer against the same NMBS award for tilting poles, clarifying that a price justification is not a negotiation, that the special price investigation may be applied selectively to the first-ranked tenderer, and that repeated inquiry is permitted.
Second round, different outcome: how a contracting authority can solidly award the same contract after a first suspension
The Council of State dismisses A2's urgent-suspension claim against the re-award to KRINKELS of a SOFICO motorway maintenance contract, because this time SOFICO produced a concrete price verification and a justified inventory reorganisation — a textbook example of a contracting authority learning from a first suspension.
A price review done four weeks after the award decision doesn't count — not even when two offers differ by 5.2 million euros
The Council of State suspends a NIRAS award of €13.8M for radioactive concrete dismantling work because the only trace of a price review on the Best and Final Offers was a Tractebel email dated 29 July 2024 — a month after the award decision of 28 June.
'Prices have been checked and deemed normal' is not motivation — confidentiality is no alibi for silence on price review
The Council of State suspends the award of a €3.5M debt collection contract by SWDE and CILE to bailiff firm Étude Bordet, because the contracting authority detected apparently abnormal prices in six of seven bids but merely included a boilerplate phrase in its award report ('prices deemed normal and acceptable'), and additionally gave four bids an identical 38/40 score on methodology with identical descriptions — without demonstrating why these bids could not be distinguished.
Interlocutory ruling fire tower Kalmthout: first plea on selection criteria references rejected, debate reopened for price investigation
Interlocutory ruling: in Swinnen's annulment appeal against the award for building a fire tower on the Kalmthout Heath, the first plea — regarding the selected tenderer's reference selection criteria — is rejected in all its branches; the appeal against the implicit refusal decision is inadmissible; the debate is reopened for the second plea (price investigation) and damages.
Questioning low prices cannot be limited to the numbers — you must also verify environmental, social and labour law compliance
The Council of State suspends the award to Vanheede Propreté of a €25 million waste collection contract because Intradel, having flagged the prices as suspiciously low, merely referred to certificates attached to the bid and never concretely verified whether the low prices were compatible with environmental, social and labour law.
A suspiciously high price is just as problematic as a suspiciously low one — price verification must go both ways
The Council of State suspends the award of the project & construction management for Vivalia's new regional hospital to ATIS because Vivalia only challenged low prices, while the winning bid was significantly above the estimate on several items without ever being questioned.
Municipality of Westerlo must thoroughly examine unit prices in cemetery pavilion construction
Suspension ordered: Municipality of Westerlo examined only total prices but not unit prices when awarding farewell pavilion construction on cemeteries, despite large deviation percentages per item.
Council of State suspends award of school window replacement contract in Brussels due to reference outside five-year period and inadequate price examination
The Council of State suspended on an emergency basis the award by the City of Brussels of a contract for the replacement of wooden window frames in the Queen Astrid school, because the selected tenderer had submitted a reference falling outside the five-year period required by the specifications and the general price examination was not supported by sound and careful reasoning.
Withdrawal of award decision for ARP debt recovery contract: UDN rejected – grounds challenge only surplus reasons, not the supporting grounds regarding lawyer costs and fee-sharing
The Council of State rejects the emergency suspension request by a bailiff against the withdrawal of the award decision for a debt recovery advisory contract, because the first two grounds only challenge surplus reasons regarding four zero-priced items without contesting the supporting grounds — regarding uncovered lawyer costs and fee-sharing contrary to the Royal Decree of 30 November 1976 — and because the third ground is directed against a non-existent future award decision.
School Het Oogappeltje Wommelgem: annulment – abnormal price detection method unverifiable and price investigation of selected items insufficient
The Council of State annuls for the second time the award decision of the municipality of Wommelgem for the extension and renovation of primary school Het Oogappeltje, because the submitted documents do not show that the detection of apparently abnormal unit prices was carried out in accordance with the contracting authority's own methodology — using a 1% rule and 30%/50% thresholds — and because the investigation of the selected items did not meet the requirements of a normally diligent contracting authority, as abnormal unit prices were accepted based on vague and general findings without requesting price justification.
52% below the estimate and 35% below the competitor: 'no abnormal price found' is not a justification
The Council of State suspends the award of a grave monument restoration contract because the municipality of Zulte dismissed the strikingly low winning price — 52.5% below the estimate and 34.7% below the second bidder — in the award report with the standard phrase 'no abnormal total or unit prices identified', without the file showing that a genuinely diligent general price review took place.
Zandvliet waiting dock: rejection of annulment appeal – negative unit prices for soil disposal in Rotterdam insufficiently justified, contracting authority's assessment margin not exceeded
The Council of State rejects the annulment appeal by the temporary association HYE–Boskalis against the award by De Vlaamse Waterweg for the construction of a waiting dock at Zandvliet, because the negative unit prices for soil disposal in Rotterdam (-€4/m³ and -€5/m³ for items 2 and 3 of conditional part 1) were insufficiently justified — the adjustment of a reference price for Maas sand of €6.50/m³ down to €4 and €5/m³ due to 'lesser quality' lacked further specification or argumentation, and the contracting authority did not exceed its assessment margin.
Suspension of award of video software for fire service dispatching — zero price for implementation item renders scoring formula unworkable and grants disproportionate advantage
The Council of State suspends the award of a services contract for video call software for Brussels fire service dispatching (NC 112) to Bliksund Denmark, because the chosen tenderer entered a zero price for item 1 (implementation and commissioning) while services were clearly still required, rendering the scoring formula (lowest price / offered price × weight) unworkable — all other tenderers automatically received 0 points on this sub-criterion — and granting a disproportionate advantage by shifting costs from item 1 to item 2.
Rejection of suspension application for framework agreement for driftwood clearance from waterways — price investigation of total price and acceptance of non-quantified justification within margin of discretion
The Council of State rejects the urgent suspension application by NV Krinkels against the award of a framework agreement for clearing driftwood and debris from waterways of the Flemish Waterway to NV Stadsbader, finding all three pleas unserious: Stadsbader's offer complies with the specifications (the 'sloop' corresponds to the 'tugboat with pontoon'), and the price investigation in which non-quantified but plausible elements were considered in assessing the total price falls within the contracting authority's margin of discretion.
School construction at Jemeppe-sur-Sambre: second suspension – responding to a price justification request by invoking a material error does not constitute a unilateral modification of the tender
The Council of State orders, for the second time, the suspension of the French Community's decision to award the school construction contract at Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, because the contracting authority committed a manifest error of assessment by qualifying as a substantive irregularity (unilateral modification of the tender) the tenderer's response to a price justification request in which it invoked a material error.
Building maintenance framework agreement: suspension for inadequate price verification – verification on only 3 of 292 items (less than 1%) is insufficient
The Council of State suspends the Brussels Port's decision to award a building maintenance framework agreement to IN ADVANCE, because the contracting entity verified prices on only 3 of the 292 items in the bill of quantities — less than 1% — by excluding all items deemed 'negligible' (less than 3% of the average global price), while articles 84 of the Law of 17 June 2016 and 43 of the Royal Decree of 18 June 2017 require verification of all unit prices.
Rejection of extreme urgency suspension against De Lijn bus transport award West 1 — lot combination is not an essential modification, LEZ decree not yet in force, and price investigation was thorough despite 36.5% price difference
The Council of State rejects the extreme urgency suspension request by BV Ganda Cars against the award of lot 6 (Ghent region) of the contract for exploitation and greening of bus transport by De Lijn (West 1, 18 lots), because none of the three pleas — essential modification of specifications through lot combination, irregularity due to LEZ regulations, and insufficient price investigation despite a 36.5% price difference — was found to be serious.
Suspension of Cirque Royal cleaning contract award — insufficient unit price verification despite applicant's irregular tender
The Council of State suspends the award of the Cirque Royal cleaning contract to Group Cleaning Services because the administrative file does not establish that the contracting authority verified the unit prices of the remaining tenders — Article 36 §4 of the Royal Decree of 18 April 2017 (15% threshold) constituting an additional obligation that does not relieve the authority of its general price verification obligation under Article 84 of the Act of 17 June 2016 and Articles 33 and 35 of the Royal Decree.
Annulment of lot 2 award of military works framework agreement — failure to verify global price of tenders due to confusion about scope of Article 36 §4
The Council of State annuls the award of lot 2 (Florennes zone) of a works framework agreement for maintenance of road infrastructure in military quarters of the Defence because the contracting authority failed to verify the global price of selected tenders, wrongly considering that Article 36 §4 of the Royal Decree of 18 April 2017 exempted it from this verification when fewer than four tenders were selected.
Software that still 'needs adapting' to NMBS's TPST platform is not a substantial irregularity — and you cannot include energy consumption from the TCO formula in the abnormality test
The Council of State dismisses Moser-Baer's appeal against the award to Westerstrand of a 4.57 million euro framework agreement for industrial GPRS clocks at Belgian railway stations, and also rejects the 726,092.80 euro damages claim.
A price check that only looks at total bid amounts isn't a price check — unit prices don't quietly fall under 'all normal'
The Council of State suspends Charleroi public-health intercommunal ISPPC's award of its medical-mail contract to Postalia Belgium because the bid analysis report compared total bid amounts but contains no proof of any concrete unit-price verification — and an 'all normal' line in the observations note does not cure that.
An award decision is not a contract — until closing, the authority can always backtrack
The Council of State confirms that the Flemish Region was allowed to withdraw its award decision to Zidis five months after notification, because the contract had not yet been concluded and Article 85 of the Public Procurement Act 2016 gives the authority the power to halt the procedure at any time before closing — regardless of irregularity.
A price justification can be in words — but not in clichés
The Council of State suspends the award of the Bosvoorde racetrack renovation to Heyrman-De Roeck because Leefmilieu Brussel accepted a price justification consisting of purely generic elements ('experience', 'cooperation', 'CO2 reduction'), without numerical substantiation and without any substantive evaluation by the contracting authority itself.
Mini-competition under a framework agreement? A price ceiling is not a price examination
The Council of State suspends the award of a 224,400-euro IT contract because the Walloon Region failed to verify the prices submitted in a mini-competition and limited the motivation of the quality criterion to repeating the rating scale.
Rejecting a bid for abnormal prices? You must also state why those items are 'non-negligible'
The Belgian Council of State suspends the award of a green-space maintenance contract to Eurogreen because Bruxelles Environnement explained in detail why two of Krinkels' unit prices were abnormal — one assumed a gardener mowing eleven football fields a day — but nowhere motivated why those items qualified as 'non-negligible' under Article 36 of the Royal Decree of 18 April 2017.
Six abnormally low prices, six times 'answer satisfactory' — that is not a price review
The Belgian Council of State annuls a €655,708 award to GBM because the contracting authority dismissed six abnormally low prices with the same boilerplate line 'la réponse a été jugée satisfaisante', without obtaining a single purchase document or supplier catalogue.
'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.
A 'request for clarification' is not a price investigation — only a real suspicion of abnormality triggers the wage / CLA check
The Council of State refuses to suspend the award of the OTW guarding contract for Namur station to Securitas: a request asking the bidder to explain price differences between rate items does not constitute a formal price investigation under article 44 of the special-sectors royal decree — and without that investigation, no obligation to verify wage and collective-bargaining compliance is triggered.
A €9.93m bid against a runner-up of €17m is not automatically an abnormal price — the Council of State leaves the Flemish electronic monitoring award to Attenti standing
The Council of State refuses to suspend the award of the Flemish electronic monitoring contract to Attenti for €9.93m — barely half the runner-up's bid — because economies of scale, proprietary technology and incumbent status can plausibly explain the gap, and because SuperCom cannot credibly close its 42.86-point shortfall on the quality criterion.
A services concession does not oblige you to conduct a price examination — even if prices differ markedly
The Council of State rejects EMG's claim against the Belgian State concerning the IPC audiovisual concession and explicitly confirms that neither the concession law nor the principles of due care, equality or competition trigger an obligation to conduct a price examination in concessions — a key difference from public procurement regulation.
The cheapest and best-quality bid still loses. The culprit: how the price criterion was split
The Council of State dismisses Canon's challenge against the award of the Farys printer fleet framework to Ricoh, despite Canon submitting both the lowest overall price and the highest-quality offer — because Farys split the price criterion into three sub-criteria (devices 50%, management software 10%, additional services 5%) based on a documented market study and needs survey, and the weights stand 'in reasonable relation' to the likely importance of each component.
49% under estimate, no price justification requested — a two-page internal memo suffices
Eqos Energie lost to De Witte-Vandecaveye, who bid 27% below the average and 49% below the estimate — without STIB-MIVB requesting a price justification; the Council held that the internal memo analyzing market fluctuations and historical prices was sufficient, even without a formal challenge.
Annulled award gives second-ranked bidder no 10% lump sum, but 50% chance × 10% margin
Three years after the Council of State annulled the award to Dillen Bouwteam because of un-investigated abnormal unit prices, VMG-De Cock receives not the 10% statutory lump sum (it was not the lowest regular bid) but 55,716.56 euros: 50% chance of being awarded × 10% profit margin × 1.1 million.
An Apple discount only meaningful when bundled with a laptop: post-factum motivation does not count
PXL university college awarded an Apple supply contract to Econocom because of an unusually high discount on one specific product; the Council suspends because the administrative file lacks any explanation — and the argument that 'this product is only ordered with a laptop' was raised only in the procedural notes.
€21M versus €36M and €40M: a price matching the estimate is not an abnormal price — even when competitors quote double
SNCB awards an 8-year framework agreement for ticket machines to Conduent at €21.4 million while Almex bid €36.2M and Scheidt&Bachmann €39.7M — and the Council refuses suspension under extreme urgency because Almex did not directly attack one essential reason given by SNCB: that Conduent's amount matches the original estimate, and that single reason suffices to remove any appearance of abnormality.
Below the European threshold a contracting authority is not required to ask for price justification — but 'not required' is not the same as 'forbidden'
The Belgian Council of State suspends an award because the Province of Antwerp rejected a sole trader's offer for an abnormally low hourly rate of €34.70 without first questioning the bidder — when the tender concerns intellectual services without any indicative quantity, mere price difference is insufficient to unilaterally conclude the price falls 'below cost'.
An 'abnormally high' negative price is just as suspicious as an abnormally low one — IVAGO learned that the hard way
The Belgian Council of State suspends a textile collection contract because IVAGO accepted the winning bid of €1 million (in a contract where bidders pay the authority) without numerical substantiation, while that price was double what the same bidders had offered in comparable contracts.
A third cheaper than you is no proof of dumping — if you don't read what the tender precisely changes between BAFO rounds
The Belgian Council of State rejects Postalia's suspension claim against a postal services award to Mestrabel: the 33% price gap is largely explained because between BAFO rounds the tender clarified 'item 40 Genk' as 'mainly magazines' — which Mestrabel and Bpost picked up, but Postalia did not.
Between article 35 and article 36 of the Procurement Royal Decree lies a threshold: an explanation that smoothly passes the general price examination doesn't have to become a formal price justification
The Council of State rejects the extreme-urgency action against the award of an architectural study contract in Boom: a contracting authority that, in the context of the general price-and-cost examination (article 35), receives an explanation it finds convincing — adequately motivated — does not have to launch the heavier procedure of article 36 (formal price justification).
A price examination that says 'normal' in the award decision and just repeats the same sentence elsewhere in the file is not a price examination
The Council of State suspends the award of the Fedasil meal-catering contract to Aramark because the Federal Public Service Internal Affairs only states in the award decision that the prices are 'normal' and merely repeats that statement verbatim in the technical analyses — while Aramark bid more than 15% below the estimate for lot 2 and the Council finds no concrete trace of an actual general price examination in the file.
A price analysis discussing only the more expensive offers leaves the winner out of frame — and missing the winner is missing the essence of the price examination
The Council of State suspends the award of the AViQ statutory auditor contract to L&S Réviseurs because the award report explains why the more expensive offers (RSM Inter Audit and the applicant) were higher, but says nothing about the price examination of the winner — while AViQ had built a 25% indexation into its estimate and the winner bid below that level.
You cannot dismiss an offer as 'abnormally priced' when that price, by your own formula, is not abnormal at all
The Council of State holds that SOFICO wrongly declared the offer of Sotraliège (€4.5 million for cleaning storm-water basins in Liège) irregular for 'abnormal price', because the contested unit prices were — by SOFICO's own mathematical criteria — not abnormal at all; but the Council nonetheless refuses suspension because of flooding risk.
Telenet bids 50% cheaper, Proximus demands a price review — the Council: with two bidders, cheap is not yet abnormal
The Council of State rejects Proximus' extreme-urgency challenge to Belnet's award to Telenet of a 5-year connectivity framework, because a price gap of more than 50% and €5 million does not automatically signal an abnormal price — certainly not with only two bidders and a winner that substantiated its pricing in detail.
'Prices were adjusted where necessary': three words in a tender evaluation report enough to suspend De Lijn's printing framework
The Council of State suspends LijnCom's award of the framework contract for printing and adhesive advertising on De Lijn buses to 3Motion, because after the price justification round the contracting authority 'adjusted' some of the winner's unit prices — whereas article 36, § 3 of the 2017 placement royal decree offers only three options: reject the tender, reject the tender, or give reasons why the total amount is not abnormal.
'We are the largest sand trader in the Netherlands' is not a price justification
The Council of State rejects Hye-Boskalis' extreme-urgency challenge against the award of the Zandvliet waiting dock to Herbosch-Kiere–Hens: negative unit prices of -€4 and -€5 per m³ for the disposal of dredged sand cannot be substantiated with Boskalis' market position and a single comparison contract from another project — when you deviate sharply from the estimate AND from the competitors, your justification must be cost-component-by-cost-component, not story-by-company.
Three Infliximab bids ranging from €68.89 to €405.22 — and your motivation reads 'two are generics'? That's a 'gross error' that brings the award down
The Council of State suspends the award to Sandoz of an Infliximab framework agreement for the CHR de la Citadelle hospital because the contracting authority wrongly classified the two cheapest offers as 'generics' while they were in fact 'biosimilars' — a substantive distinction that should have underpinned the price justification of an 80% price gap.
96 parking spaces against a requirement of 100 is not a substantial irregularity — and a 6.5% architect fee is not abnormal, even when 27% below the runner-up
The Council of State rejects D E Architecten's urgent suspension request against the award to M4 Architecten of a study contract for a local service centre and child-care facility in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw: a bid with 4 parking spaces fewer than required and a fee of 6.5% (against 8.25% for the second-best) is not substantially irregular in this context — and the price examination needs no explicit motivation as long as the contracting authority finds no appearance of abnormality.
A 'reservation' about air freight and customs in your masks bid wasn't a useful clarification — it was a deviation from the delivery schedule that cost you the award
The Council of State rejects I'll Be Bag's challenge against the Covid mask procurement of 50 million Community masks (awarded to Avrox and Tweeds & Cottons): tendering with 'reservations' about transport and customs on a strict delivery schedule is legally a deviation — and challenging that deviation only later, in a supplementary note, comes too late and forfeits the right to attack the remaining grounds.
A price justification that combines the Bureau des Prix estimate with the requested unit-price justifications suffices, even if the analysis covers less than two thirds of the offer amount
The Council of State rejects the annulment of the award to Colas Belgium for the E411 rehabilitation (€8.89m), because a contracting authority that bases its price examination on a Bureau des Prix estimate combined with reasoned justifications of certain unit prices it queried with the bidder satisfies its examination and motivation duty — even if that analysis covers less than two thirds of the offer amount.
When your own counsel can't explain your own document: how Limburg.net lost its bin-bag award
The Council of State suspends the award by waste utility Limburg.net to Sphere Belgium because applying the price formula is not the same as the legally required price examination — a defect that became obvious when the contracting authority's counsel admitted at the hearing that he could not explain his own document.
An 'additional tool' whose cost you leave out of your price gets no second chance
The Council of State refuses to suspend the award of the SPW hosting contract to NRB: ATOS had listed OpenShift in its bid as an 'additional tool' but did not include its licensing cost in the price — that is a substantial irregularity, not an ambiguity in the specification.
An intercommunal bidding 30% cheaper is not an abnormally low price — even when working at cost
The Council of State dismisses TV Willer/ABOG's extreme-urgency challenge against the award of twelve street-drain cleaning lots to intercommunal Intradura, ruling that an intermunicipal cooperative may bid outside its members' territory, that 'no commercial character' does not mean 'no public procurement', and that a 30% price difference explained by a lower hourly wage and higher productivity is not an abnormally low price.
A cleaning rate of EUR 20.49 per hour cannot be brushed away with 'we know that company from the previous contract'
Hogeschool PXL awarded a four-year cleaning contract to Köse Cleaning at 30 % below the average bid price without any documented price scrutiny — the Council of State annuls the award because in a fraud-sensitive sector like cleaning, the contracting authority must also verify whether the minimum wage is achievable.
'Correcting' a contradiction in your bid after you've seen the competitors' prices is not a material error — it breaks the equal-treatment principle
The Council of State suspends the re-award to ETS BERTRAND, because the city of Philippeville treated a contradiction in its bid (cover letter 'excl. VAT', form '€ incl. VAT' for the same figures) as a 'purely material error' — while the bidder only sent its 'clarification' after reading OCTA+'s prices in the first award decision.
Accepting an 'abnormally high' price is permitted under softer rules than rejecting an 'abnormally low' one
The Belgian Council of State dismisses the appeal against the award to Van Wellen for the structural maintenance of the E19, and explicitly establishes for the first time that an examination of abnormally HIGH prices is fundamentally different from an examination of abnormally low prices — the contracting authority may take a softer stance on accepting price justifications, and the grounds in art. 36 §3 of the Royal Decree of 18 April 2017 are not exhaustive.
RENEWI's price went up by EUR 113,000 after 'correction' — and the file does not say how
The Belgian Council of State suspends the award of a 4-year waste management contract to RENEWI because CHR Citadelle did motivate why a correction was needed but never explained how the price was actually recalculated — and without those calculation details, a 'rectification' of EUR 113,000 may in reality be a new price offer.
You can complain about the absence of a price check even if you submitted the lowest bid — and a comparative price table is not a price check
The Council of State suspends the award to Malysse of a framework contract for the rental and maintenance of workwear for VIVALIA because the administrative file nowhere shows that the contracting authority carried out an effective price check, and rules that even Servitex — the lowest bidder — has standing for this plea.
Family business, simple project, lower recognition class, nearby sites — four soft arguments together suffice to justify an abnormally low price
The Council of State rejects Swinnen's suspension request against the award to the family contractor Nelis for a youth meeting centre in Zaventem, confirming that a contracting authority may accept a price justification based on non-numerical arguments — such as a family structure, a simple project and synergy through proximity — provided those elements are plausible and reasonable when read together.
If you say you verified the prices, you must be able to prove it with documents in your file — otherwise the verification has not been established
The Council of State suspends, for the second time, the same award decision by the Brussels Region for a six-building cleaning contract, because the Region had neither preserved any trace of price verification for Köse Cleaning in its administrative file, nor could explain why an 'exceptional' use of student workers was suddenly accepted as a structural price justification for the winner Jette Clean.
Claiming in a pre-litigation letter that the winner used 'wrong measurements' can backfire — unless you put it in your application
The Council reopens the debate in VMG-De Cock's challenge to the award to Himpe (€2,671,181 for the new local services centre De Mantel in Zwijnaarde) and rejects OCMW Ghent's argument that VMG's own bid would be irregular because she based her price on a different undermining width than the bill of quantities — a legal appreciation in a 26 October 2016 letter does not bind the Council.
A radiation-shielding block estimated at €800/m³ when it costs €5,000 on the market — two years after the suspension was rejected, the €47.8m Jules Bordet award is annulled
The Council of State annuls the award of the structural-shell lot for the new Jules Bordet Institute to the temporary association CFE-Blaton-Entreprises Louis De Waele (€47.8 million) because the contracting authority accepted a unit price of €1,163/m³ for a radiation-shielding block that the market sells at around €5,000/m³ — the benchmark used (a prior estimate of €800/m³) rested on a misreading of a Veritas quote as if it included 357 invisible tons of lead.
A bid 31% below the average survives price scrutiny thanks to a single 32-page annex
Stadsbader bid 31% below the average for an Infrabel rail works contract — and survived price scrutiny because they spontaneously included a detailed calculation of their ten largest line items, six of which actually proved more expensive than the complaining competitor's.
You can't explain away unit prices that are 81% above and 68% below the average by saying 'the total price is normal'
The Council of State suspends the award of a demolition and new-build contract in Lommel because the city had not investigated unit prices ranging from 81% above to 68% below the average — a 'normal' total price and a vague reference to 'clustering' between items cannot replace that investigation.
A bidder admits its own price doesn't add up — you cannot then award 'as submitted' without a reasoned answer to the question whether that price is still normal
POM Antwerpen could not push through the award of a 7.8-million-euro infrastructure contract to Deckx after Deckx itself, one month after opening, admitted in writing that its unit prices for water-retaining sheet piling did not include the purchase or depreciation of the steel sheets — because the award report nowhere reasoned why those self-confessed low prices were nevertheless normal.
Cutting five 'superfluous' sub-studies from the winning offer to make the price acceptable? That is not correcting a clerical error — that is rewriting the offer
The Council of State suspends the award of the design contract for the redevelopment of municipal buildings in Schoten to Jef Van Oevelen, because the municipality — without any formal procedure and without applying the same exercise to the other bidders — removed five 'unrequested' sub-studies (€96,075.95) from his lump-sum price, thereby lowering Van Oevelen's offer from €506,000 to €409,924 and elevating him to the top of the ranking against what the analysis report showed.
The winner doesn't charge VAT — and the contracting authority believes it without a single document in the file
The Flemish Region awards a contract to a temporary partnership that doesn't charge VAT on most of its bid because of a supposed 'flat-rate agricultural scheme' — but that justification turns out to be factually wrong and rests on no document in the file.
A comparative unit-price table can be price investigation — even if the runner-up feels nothing has been checked
The Council of State rejects VMG-De Cock's challenge against the award of a school construction contract to a competitor €116,000 cheaper, because the contracting authority did carry out a price investigation with a detailed comparative unit-price table — even though it asked no formal price justification.
A 'se réserve le droit' clause is a faculty, not an obligation: the SRWT was not required to mistrust the guaranteed 81,000 km
The Council of State dismisses Michelin's annulment challenge against the awarding of lot 1 of the TEC bus tyre framework to Bridgestone, because the specifications clause 'la SRWT se réserve le droit de corriger ou écarter toute soumission faisant état d'un kilométrage garanti anormal' is a faculty and not an obligation, and Bridgestone's guaranteed 81,000 km — backed by the previous model's average of 79,132 km on the TEC network — is not manifestly unreasonable.
Wider opening hours beat 'always by appointment' — and a ground that does not flip the ranking is dead on arrival
The Council of State rejects the emergency suspension by Sita Treatment & Recycling against the award of a bottom-ash processing contract to IMOG and rules that broad standard opening hours can rationally be deemed more flexible than 'on appointment outside narrower hours' — and that a ground without effect on the ranking fails for lack of interest.
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This page shows all rulings of the Council of State (Belgium's supreme administrative court) on price investigation 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 →