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Michael Winder examines a European Commission initiative ‘The Commission wants to help member states improve the skills, knowledge and understanding of buyers to ensure compliance with procurement law and best value for money.’ In the autumn of 2017, the European Commission announced a new procurement initiative aiming to encourage member states to undertake public procurement …
Continue reading "Policy: It’s only money"
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Rebecca Williams and Ben Lamble discuss a recent case dealing with disclosure ‘The lesson for prospective claimants is clear: the strict time limits imposed on public procurement claims will be executed robustly in all but the most extreme cases.’ The Technology and Construction Court (the TCC) has recently recognised that public procurement cases, particularly those …
Continue reading "Practice: On the wrong track"
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Gwendoline Davies looks at the courts’ changing approach to interpretation of exclusion clauses ‘The Unfair Contract Terms Act (UCTA) can determine the enforceability of clauses which seek to restrict or exclude business liability in some commercial contracts, including the majority of supply contracts.’ The interpretation of exclusion clauses in commercial contracts has continued to prompt …
Continue reading "Contract: Including exclusion"
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Katherine Souter assesses the status of an award of damages for breach of the public procurement rules ‘What needs to happen fairly soon is for another case to come before the UKSC, which is referred to the CJEU for clarification, so that we have legal clarity on this issue before the UK leaves the CJEU’s …
Continue reading "Remedies: Disappearing damages?"
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Robert Bell reports on a recent decision of the EFTA Court ‘The question before the court was what level of culpability of a contracting authority was necessary for the court to award damages for breach of the public procurement law.’ A recent public procurement decision of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Court highlights the …
Continue reading "Brexit: Crossing borders"
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Melanie Pears and Tim Care take a look at the recently published Supplier Code of Conduct ‘Suppliers must treat subcontractors fairly; they must not pass unreasonable levels of risk to the subcontractors who cannot reasonably be expected to manage or carry those risks.’ The Supplier Code of Conduct has been introduced by the government with …
Continue reading "Contracting: Regular supplies"
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Jorren Knibbe concludes his review of some noteworthy decisions of the UK and European courts ‘It is not clear from the EU procurement Directives how they are intended to operate where a technical specification is discriminatory but can be justified. In those circumstances, the result under the Directives and under Art 34 ought to be …
Continue reading "Update: Sign of the times"
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Sapna Garg reports on developments in the oral amendment of contracts ‘Parties to agreements should now be acutely conscious that informal communications could amount to a valid, enforceable variation of the original agreements entered into even if they are not documented or signed.’ A noteworthy trend at both High Court and Court of Appeal level …
Continue reading "Variations: A slip of the tongue"
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Chris Hoyle highlights the practice of preliminary market consultations ‘A general market invitation, perhaps in the form of a prior information notice, followed up by a group consultation is potentially less capable of distorting competition than one-to-one discussions.’ It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a public-sector body in possession of a good budget must …
Continue reading "Practice: Pride, prejudice and procurement"
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Nathan Curtis, Dan Ballard and Ed Hobbs outline the key factors in relation to financing battery storage projects ‘Lenders and borrowers need to ensure that they are aware of the large number of proposed changes which may affect battery projects and the impact of those changes on anticipated revenues.’ Based on our experience working on …
Continue reading "Energy: Ever ready for the future"
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