After the award ¡ This guide was generated with the help of an AI system. Its legal references were checked against the official EU texts listed under Sources on . Next review due by , or sooner if the law changes. EU rules only. Not legal advice.
Short answer. EU law requires every Member State to offer a fast and effective review of procurement decisions, with three powers: interim measures (including suspending the procedure), setting aside unlawful decisions, and damages (Article 2(1) of Directive 89/665). Once the contract is signed, national law may limit you to damages (Article 2(7)), except where the contract must be declared ineffective, mainly for an unlawful direct award or a contract signed in breach of the standstill rules (Article 2d). Everything else is national: which body hears the case, the exact deadlines (above the EU minimums), fees, and how damages are calculated. The Directive sets a floor, not the procedure you will actually follow.
EU law ¡ What every Member State must provide
Who can apply. Review must be available âat least to any person having or having had an interest in obtaining a particular contract and who has been or risks being harmed by an alleged infringementâ (Article 1(3)). Member States may require you to notify the buyer first, or to seek review with the buyer first. In that case, the application must immediately suspend the possibility of signing the contract (Article 1(4) and (5)).
What a review body can do (Article 2(1)):
- take interim measures âat the earliest opportunityâ, including suspending the procedure or any decision;
- set aside unlawful decisions, âincluding the removal of discriminatory technical, economic or financial specificationsâ in the documents;
- award damages to persons harmed.
Suspension. If you apply to an independent first-instance body against an award decision, the buyer canât sign the contract until that body has decided on interim measures or on the review. The suspension lasts at least until the end of the standstill (Article 2(3)). Otherwise, an application doesnât automatically suspend the procedure (Article 2(4)). In deciding on interim measures, the body may weigh the consequences for all interests, including the public interest (Article 2(5)).
Damages. Member States may require that a decision first be set aside before damages are claimed (Article 2(6)).
After signature. Except for ineffectiveness and its time limits (Articles 2d to 2f), national law decides what a review does to a contract already concluded. A Member State may limit the review body to awarding damages once the contract is signed in accordance with the rules (Article 2(7)).
Standstill and deadlines are explained in after the award decision: at least 10 calendar days after an electronic award decision, and review deadlines of at least 10 days (Articles 2a and 2c).
EU law ¡ Ineffectiveness
A review body independent of the buyer must declare the contract ineffective, or make it so, in three cases (Article 2d(1)):
- Unlawful direct award: the contract was awarded without a prior contract notice in the Official Journal where that wasnât permitted.
- Signed too early: the buyer broke the standstill or a suspension (Articles 1(5), 2(3) or 2a(2)), depriving you of pre-contractual remedies, combined with another breach of the procurement rules that affected your chances of winning.
- Framework call-offs and DPS contracts where the Member State used the standstill derogation and the conditions werenât met.
Consequences. National law decides them. It can cancel all obligations retroactively, or only those still to be performed, with other penalties (Article 2d(2)). A review body may keep the contract in force for overriding reasons of general interest, but then must impose alternative penalties: fines on the buyer or shortening the contract (Articles 2d(3) and 2e(2)). The costs of delay, of a new procedure or of changing contractor arenât overriding reasons (Article 2d(3)).
The voluntary notice. Ineffectiveness for a direct award doesnât apply if the buyer published a notice of its intention to conclude the contract (a âvoluntary ex ante transparencyâ notice) and waited at least 10 calendar days before signing (Article 2d(4)).
Time limits. Member States may require an application for ineffectiveness within at least 30 days of a contract award notice giving reasons for the direct award, or of being told of the conclusion with a summary of reasons. In any case the limit canât be less than six months from the conclusion of the contract (Article 2f(1)). If a frameworkâs contract notice is published, ineffectiveness for lack of publication doesnât apply, even if the notice omitted the maximum quantity (Simonsen & Weel, Câ23/20, ruling point 3).
EU law ¡ What the Court has said
| Issue | Held | Case |
|---|---|---|
| Seeking a rival's exclusion | An action by a tenderer seeking to exclude another tenderer can't be dismissed as inadmissible because a counter-claim by that other tenderer is examined first, whatever the number of tenderers | Câ689/13 PFE; Câ333/18 Lombardi |
| If you didn't bid | National law may deny standing to operators that chose not to take part because the rules made an award to them very unlikely, but the national court must assess each case in detail | Câ328/17 |
| Damages after an infringement is established | National law may make a civil damages claim depend on the infringement first being definitively established by the review body or court | Câ300/17 Hochtief |
| Loss of a chance | National law or practice can't exclude in principle compensation for the loss of the opportunity to take part in a procedure, for a tenderer unlawfully excluded | Câ547/22 Ingsteel |
| Longer suspension | A national rule barring signature until the first-instance body has ruled on the review is compatible with the Directive, whether that body is judicial or not | Câ303/22 CROSS ZlĂn |
| Single-operator frameworks | Concluding one counts as concluding a contract for the standstill rules | Câ274/21, ruling point 1 |
| Challenging a contract awarded without a notice | Where there was no prior contract notice and the award notice isn't published yet, national law can't require you to identify the procedure and the decision you challenge, or to pay flat-rate court fees of an amount impossible to foresee. Nor can a court dismiss an interim application because it must first work out the fee | Câ274/21, ruling points 4â6 |
| Withheld information | If the court finds that information was wrongly kept confidential and allows a new action against the award, the time limit for it doesn't start until you have access to all that information | Câ54/21 Antea Polska, ruling point 4 |
Utilities have a parallel Remedies Directive (92/13/EEC). Some judgments under it point the same way, but they arenât listed here.
National law ¡ What we donât cover, and why
The review body, the deadlines above the EU minimums, the form of the application, fees, whether you must first complain to the buyer, how damages are proved and calculated, and what happens to a signed contract are national. We havenât verified national rules, so we donât state them. Check the review information in the award decision, and take advice from a procurement lawyer in that country.
Our analysis ¡ Before and after signature
| When you act | What EU law guarantees |
|---|---|
| Before the deadline, against the documents | Setting aside discriminatory specifications (Article 2(1)(b)). Cheapest to fix |
| During the standstill | Suspension while an independent first-instance body decides (Article 2(3)), interim measures, setting aside the award |
| After signature, contract lawfully concluded | Possibly only damages (Article 2(7)) |
| After signature, unlawful direct award or standstill breach | Ineffectiveness or alternative penalties, within the Article 2f time limits |
This table is our reading of the Directive. The national rules decide how each step works in practice.
Practice ¡ If youâre considering a challenge
- Start on the day of the decision. Note the date sent, the standstill period stated and the review information (see after the award decision).
- Ask for reasons at once under Article 55(2), and in writing about any low price you doubt (see abnormally low tenders in the EU case law).
- Recalculate the scores with the published method (see the scoring calculator).
- Talk to a lawyer before the standstill ends. After signature, what you can obtain may narrow to damages.
- Keep evidence of your loss. If damages become the only route, you will need to show what you lost. EU law doesnât allow the loss of a chance to be ruled out in principle (Câ547/22).
- If a contract was awarded without a notice, check whether a voluntary transparency notice was published and when. The 10-day and 30-day periods run from such notices.
What this page doesnât cover
National review procedures and deadlines. Utilities (Directive 92/13/EEC) and defence procurement. Review of contract modifications in detail (see contract modifications).
Sources checked for this page
- Directive 89/665/EEC (Remedies Directive), consolidated text of 17 April 2014 (Articles 1, 2, 2aâ2f)
- Court of Justice, C-689/13 PFE, 5 April 2016
- Court of Justice, C-333/18 Lombardi, 5 September 2019
- Court of Justice, C-328/17 Amt Azienda Trasporti e MobilitĂ , 28 November 2018
- Court of Justice, C-300/17 Hochtief, 7 August 2018
- Court of Justice, C-547/22 Ingsteel, 6 June 2024
- Court of Justice, C-303/22 CROSS ZlĂn, 18 January 2024
- Court of Justice, C-23/20 Simonsen & Weel, 17 June 2021
- Court of Justice, C-54/21 Antea Polska, 17 November 2022
- Court of Justice, C-274/21 and C-275/21 EPIC Financial Consulting, 14 July 2022
This page is re-checked when any of the following happens: an amendment to Directive 89/665/EEC; a Court of Justice judgment on review procedures, ineffectiveness or damages in procurement. Spotted an error? See how corrections work.