PUBLIC PROCUREMENT LAW IN DENMARK – A BRIEF OVERVIEW           

 Prof. Dr. Carina Risvig Hamer

Organisations

The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority under the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs is responsible for the public procurement area in Denmark. The Competition and Consumer Authority is responsible for ensuring correct understanding and application of the procurement rules and for providing information on the interpretation and application of the rules on public procurement.
The main central purchasing body in Denmark is SKI (Staten og Kommunernes Indkøbsservice A/S). SKI is a limited company, and it was established in 1994. SKI establishes framework agreements on behalf of the Danish state and municipalities.
The Danish Complaint Board for Public Procurement reviews public procurement procedures. The Board is set up as a review body and it is an independent administrative board for hearing complaints and settling disputes concerning possible violations of the rules for the award of public contracts. The board is composed of a chairman and nine vice-chairmen, which are all judges. Besides the chairmen the board has a number of expert members. When reviewing the board usually consists of one chairman and one expert member. However, more chairmen and expert members can participate in the review proceedings. A decision by the board can be appealed to the ordinary Courts of Denmark.

Rules and regulations

In Denmark, each contracting authority whether on state, regional or local level is responsible for managing their own public contracts.
Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement has been implemented into the Danish legal system with the Public Procurement Act (Udbudsloven) – https://www.en.kfst.dk/media/54435/the-public-procurement-act.pdf .
The Public Procurement Act is the first of its kind in Denmark. It was passed in 2015 and entered into force on the first of January 2016.
Before the Public Procurement Act entered into force Danish public procurement was regulated by Directive 2004/18/EC and Directive 2004/17/EC. These Directives were directly applicable and the actual text of the directives constituted the legislation in the area of public procurement. Today this is still the case for Directive 2014/23/EU and Directive 2014/25EU (Utilities and Concessions).
The subject matter of the Public Procurement Act covers public contracts at an estimated value exceeding the minimum economic threshold. These are public works contracts, public supply and service contracts and design contests. The Public Procurement Act also regulates public contracts at an estimated value below the minimum economic threshold.

Relevant case law and news

Each year the Complaints Board publish an annual report with resumes of the most important cases. The report are available at: https://naevneneshus.dk/start-din-klage/klagenaevnet-for-udbud/aarsberetninger/