Consiglio di Stato, Section III, NO. 1786/2026
Article(s) in Directive 2014/24/EU: Art. 72 (c)
Topic: Price adjustment for unpredictable collective-labour agreements mandated wage increases in a multi-year public procurement contract
Member State: IT
Court/rev. board: Council of State
1. IMPLEMENTATION / RELEVANT NATIONAL LEGISLATION
article 110 of d.lgs 36/2023
2. FACTS
The Municipality of Rivalta di Torino has launched an open tender procedure for the award of the school and nursery catering service. The contract was to run for three academic years, with the option to renew for a further three years.
Initially, the contract had been awarded to CAMST Soc. Coop. a r.l. However, the award decision was annulled by the Piedmont Regional Administrative Court: the tender had not been adequately justified in relation to the cost of organic foodstuffs and had not taken into account the increases resulting from the new sector-specific national collective labour agreement. The contracting authority had restarted the sub-procedure to verify the adequacy of the tender. Following a favourable assessment, the service was once again awarded to CAMST by executive decision no. 1968 of 1 April 2025.
Euroristorazione S.r.l., the second ranked economic operator, brought appeal against this second award, seeking the annulment of the decision and compensation for damages: it contested the adjustment made by the successful tenderer to its financial bid, arguing that the increase in labour costs resulting from the renewal of the national collective labour agreement had been improperly offset by a reduction in overheads and profit. The Regional Administrative Court dismissed the appeal
3. JUDGMENT
The Council of State has dismissed the appeal: contrary to the appellant’s assertion, the introduction of new minimum wages constitutes an unforeseen event for the undertaking, entirely comparable to a change in the law. Therefore, when assessing the tender, this increase may justify a reallocation of costs between the various cost items, provided that the overall price of the tender remains unchanged. Consequently, it is permissible to cover the increased staff costs by drawing on a ‘contingency fund’. Indeed, although the periodic renewal of collective agreements is a foreseeable event, every economic operator must draw up its tender based primarily on the wages in force at that time. It is not possible, in fact, to know in advance either the exact date of the contract renewal, or the extent of the increases to be agreed by the trade unions and sectoral organisations, nor is it possible for the economic operator to take part in collective bargaining.
Comment:
The ruling contained in this judgement differs significantly from previous case law, which was very reluctant to grant requests for adjustments to prices and fees, on the assumption that the offer submitted in the tender process was absolutely and irrevocably binding on the private party for the entire duration of the contract. Subsequent increases in production costs were, in fact, classified as business risk, which the operator should have taken into account in advance, particularly where such increases stemmed from the renewal of the National Collective Labour Agreement. The Council of State has here struck an appropriate balance between the protection of workers and the economic operator’s exposure to dynamics beyond its control, fuelled by the consequences of the current critical geopolitical situation and the surge in inflation, which has led to a massive renewal of contractual sectors that had remained unchanged for many years[1].
[1] See La variazione del CCNL indicato all’interno dell’offerta: conseguenze e rimedi, Avv. Giusepppe Laurieri in Mediappalti, 10 Giugno 2026
