Exclusion
Exclusion grounds determine when a tenderer must or may be excluded. This includes mandatory exclusion grounds (criminal offences, tax debts) and optional exclusion grounds (serious professional misconduct, conflicts of interest).
Classified information about your shareholder? Defence doesn't have to explain what exactly is going on
The Council of State rules that Defence may exclude a company from a European defence project based on classified intelligence about its sole shareholder, even though the precise content of that information cannot be disclosed.
Defence may exclude a company based on classified intelligence — without revealing what it is
The Council of State rejects the claim of a defence company excluded from a DEFRA research consortium based on classified military intelligence about the integrity of its sole shareholder — even though that information cannot be disclosed.
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.
De regularisatiemogelijkheid voor fiscale schulden geldt ook bij dwingende spoed — en dwingende redenen van algemeen belang laten juist toe om voorbij te gaan aan de uitsluiting zelf, niet aan de regularisatieplicht
De Raad van State vernietigt de gunning van een opdracht voor elektriciteitslevering aan de stad Sint-Niklaas, omdat de aanbestedende overheid een inschrijver met fiscale schulden heeft uitgesloten zonder hem de wettelijk verplichte eenmalige regularisatiemogelijkheid van vijf werkdagen te bieden — terwijl dwingende spoed geen rechtvaardiging vormt om de regularisatieplicht over te slaan, en de wet integendeel voorziet dat dwingende redenen van algemeen belang toelaten om de verplichte uitsluiting zelf buiten toepassing te laten.
Een goedgekeurd RSZ-afbetalingsplan volstaat als bewijs van regularisatie — maar de aanbestedende overheid moet de regularisatiekans ook uitdrukkelijk bieden
De Raad van State schorst de gunning van een opdracht voor het onderhoud van poorten aan de Faculteit Diergeneeskunde van de Universiteit Gent omdat de aanbestedende overheid een inschrijver met een RSZ-schuld van meer dan 10.000 euro enkel heeft bevraagd over de uitzondering van artikel 68, paragraaf 1, eerste lid, 2° (tegenvorderingen op een overheid) maar hem nooit uitdrukkelijk de regularisatiekans heeft geboden die het derde lid van diezelfde bepaling voorschrijft — en omdat een goedgekeurd afbetalingsplan bij de RSZ op zich volstaat als bewijs van regularisatie, zonder dat de eerste aflossing al binnen vijf werkdagen moet zijn betaald.
Kwaliteitsdoelstellingen per stuk beoordelen en scoren is geen ongeoorloofd gebruik van subgunningscriteria
De Raad van State verwerpt de vordering tegen de gunning van een raamovereenkomst voor warme drankautomaten omdat het systematisch beoordelen en scoren van elk van de in het bestek aangekondigde kwaliteitsdoelstellingen geen ongeoorloofde subgunningscriteria creëert, maar slechts de aangekondigde beoordelingsmethodiek van plus- en minpunten toepast.
A consortium cannot 'borrow' a missing statutory authorisation from its licensed partner
The Council of State rejects the suspension: when a contract covers regulated activities such as private security, each member of a consortium must hold the required authorisation personally — reliance on a third party's capacity is excluded for such 'specific authorisations'.
Council of State lacks jurisdiction over appeal against three-year exclusion under Article 48 of the Execution Decree — dispute regarding contract performance belongs to the judicial courts
The Council of State rejects the annulment appeal against the decision by the Municipality of Beveren to exclude NV Norré-Behaegel from participation in contracts for three years due to persistent shortcomings (34 formal notices of default), because the exclusion under Article 48 of the Execution Decree falls within the performance of a contract and therefore belongs to the jurisdiction of the judicial courts.
When a non-selection rests on multiple independent grounds, you must attack each — or your appeal is doomed
Flying Group Holding only challenged the optional exclusion ground about Chinese ties, but Defence had two other — unchallenged — grounds for non-selection, and those alone were enough to keep the decision standing.
A contracting authority can require its bidders to work with a supplier who never submitted a bid — provided that supplier falls under a statutory exclusion ground
The Belgian Council of State rejects the action of three competing bailiffs against a TMVW tender that imposes cooperation with 'central bailiff Philip Scheir bvba' (appointed without competition) for the legal leg of external debt management — statutory bailiff tasks fall outside procurement law via art. 28 §1 4° e) of the 2016 Act, and without a cross-border element European transparency obligations also do not apply.
A forgotten check of exclusion grounds for company directors can be cured during the proceedings — stripping the applicant's interest in the ground
The Council of State rejects the suspension of a 59 million euro framework agreement for fibre to Flemish schools, where the applicant discovered that the contracting authority had only requested the criminal record of Telenet as a legal entity, not of its directors as required by article 67 §1 paragraph 5 — but the authority had since obtained those extracts during the proceedings, depriving the applicant of its interest in the ground.
Hide your previous terminated contract and you lose the next one too — even if you're contesting that termination in court
The Council of State refuses to suspend the exclusion of an architectural firm by social housing company Toit & Moi based on an earlier contract terminated by another contracting authority (La Sambrienne), holding that the firm should have spontaneously disclosed the termination in its bid and submitted self-cleaning measures — even though it is contesting the termination itself before the ordinary courts.
You won the first suspension — and you think the contracting authority is now obliged to award to you? The opposite can happen: in round two you fall out on irregularities
The Council of State rejects Fire Technics's second urgent suspension request against the Hainaut-Centre rescue zone: after a successful first suspension in February 2020, the contracting authority may withdraw its decision and issue a new award decision in which Fire Technics's bid is excluded for substantial irregularities — even if that bid was found regular in the first round.
Between 'incorrect statement' and 'gravely false statement' there is a motivation gap the contracting authority must fill
The Council of State annuls the exclusion of a cleaning company on the ground of 'gravely false statements' (article 61, §2, 7° of the 2011 Royal Decree) because the Walloon Region had only established that the bidder's environmental management evidence did not meet the requirements — never explaining where the 'gravity' lay.
One disabled worker out of two is exactly half — and half is not a majority
Groenservice Marissen was the cheapest bidder on a contract reserved for sheltered workshops in Schoten, but was excluded because it could not show that a majority of its workers — or even of the two workers it would actually deploy on site — were disabled; the Council of State dismisses the appeal.
Two grounds for exclusion? One weak link can break the whole decision
The Council of State suspends the award of shower-renovation works to RECO+ because the Communauté française excluded VAEL on a combination of a tax debt that the tax administration itself had repeatedly denied existed, and a Social Security debt that did stand up — but without saying that either ground sufficed on its own, the weakest link drags the whole decision down.
Two procedural errors by the OCMW — yet no suspension, because without a proven impact on the ranking there is no standing
The Council of State refuses to suspend the OCMW Jodoigne's award to TCO Service for meal delivery to Le Clair Séjour, because ISS Catering shows neither through the unverified honour declaration nor through the 'impossible' 10.59% VAT rate that it should have won the contract.
Excluded for tax debt? A VAT credit relating to the closed quarter can save you — even if the document is dated after the opening
The City of Brussels excluded MW-Cars from a school transport contract because it had over €3,000 in tax debts on 7 January 2016 and its VAT declaration only reached the City on 18 January, but the Council of State suspends the exclusion: the €21,517.30 VAT credit related to a quarter closed before opening and therefore existed on the opening date.
Press coverage of fraud at your competitor isn't enough to have them excluded — the contracting authority needs concrete proof
The Council of State rejects Alfa-Zet Systems' extreme-urgency suspension request against the award of the Fedorest cash-register contract to Euro-Tap-Control-Verkoop, because a fraud investigation reported in the press without concrete criminal-law evidence does not establish a 'serious professional misconduct' under article 61, §2, 4° of the Royal Decree on Procurement.
A 2006 conviction used to exclude in 2015 — while the same contracting authority awarded in 2011
Flemish Waterway authority W&Z excludes Heyrman-De Roeck on the basis of a nine-year-old environmental conviction, but fails to explain in its award report why the same conviction was not a problem in 2011 — the Council of State suspends the exclusion for inadequate reasoning.
Same authority, same bidder, same nine-year-old conviction — and a second suspension
On the same day the Council suspends the exclusion of Heyrman-De Roeck under specifications 16EI/15/26, it also suspends a parallel exclusion of the same bidder by the same authority under specifications 16EI/15/71 — for an identical inadequacy of reasoning under the discretionary exclusion ground.
A social security debt is a discretionary exclusion ground — automatic exclusion without a weighing is insufficient reasoning
The Council of State annuls an award because the French-speaking Brussels Parliamentary Assembly excluded cleaning company ACTIVA over social security debts without considering its ongoing repayment plan and a contested rectification debt — and without explaining why it exercised its discretionary exclusion power that way.
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 'bankruptcy' from Digiflow dating from when you were 7 years old: blind trust in a database costs Verviers the award
The Council of State suspends in extreme urgency the exclusion of an architects' team from the Verviers contract because the city declared an architect 'bankrupt' on the basis of a Digiflow record that actually referred to an automotive activity closed in 2003 — and to a start date (1965) when the man was 7 years old.
When your consultant becomes your supplier: that doesn't break the award — but only if your procurement design has already flattened the advantage
The Belgian National Office for Annual Leave first had A.O.S. (later Colliers) draw a dynamic-office concept for its new Rigoletto building, then awarded the furniture contract to that same Colliers, and the Council of State refuses to suspend: a prior-involvement situation under article 64 of the Royal Decree on Placement 2011 doesn't automatically force the buyer to formally verify the competitive advantage, provided the procurement architecture itself neutralizes that advantage.
Punishing a water thief is fine — but not as a ground to withdraw an earlier award decision
The Council of State suspended both the award to SACE and the withdrawal of the earlier award to Marcel Theis, because the Commune de Gouvy tried to undo the original award based on a water theft only discovered afterwards — breaching the retrait doctrine.
An authority that did not know the winner needed a licence cannot say 'the rival should have warned us'
The Council of State annuls the award of parking-meter emptying to Apcoa Belgium because Apcoa, since a 2012 amendment, did not hold the required private security licence — a public order law the authority itself should have checked at selection.
Track public tenders?
Receive daily relevant tenders tailored to your business. Including AI summaries, competitive analysis and market intelligence.
This page shows all rulings of the Council of State (Belgium's supreme administrative court) on exclusion 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 →