Judgment of 20th November 2025, of the South-Central Administrative Court (SCAC), case 51838/24.1BELSB, Portugal
Article(s) in Directive 2014/24/EU: article 18(1) Directive 2014/24
Topic: Open tender, contradictory declarations, exclusion of offer
Member State: PT
Court/rev. board: South-Central Administrative Court (SCAC)
1. IMPLEMENTATION / RELEVANT NATIONAL LEGISLATION
2. FACTS
In an open tender for a public works contract (structural reinforcement of a bridge in Vila Franca de Xira), it was discussed if one of the bidders’ offers was put forward in breach of the requirements of the tender documents.
3. JUDGMENT
A declaration included in the offer was not in accordance with the descriptive memory. This meant that a contradiction in terms in the offer existed. The bidder wanted this contradiction to be considered irrelevant, or be given the possibility to correct it. However, the Court considered that the reading of all the documents contained in the offer did not lead to the conclusion that an error of typing had occurred, nor any other element that allowed for the contrary. For the Court, it was also not clear in which sense the contradiction could be solved, i.e., which of the possible meanings could be preferred. The contradiction, for the Court, could only be resolved through the presentation of a new declaration. However, that would mean the presentation of a new declaration (because it would imply the choice between one of the two possible meanings of the declaration presented), which could not be accepted when looking at the Portuguese Public Contracts Code – article 72(2), based in the principles of equal treatment, transparency and competition. Therefore, the decision was to exclude the offer.
