If you have taken part in a public tender and feel that you have been discriminated against, or you noticed irregularities in the procedure, you have several possibilities to seek redress.

Public tenders

If you have taken part in a public tender and feel that you have been discriminated against, or noticed irregularities in the procedure, you can request a review of the procedure or file a complaint.

Contract award decisions are reviewed by the courts or independent review bodies based in the EU country where the tender was published. You can find contact details for the appropriate institutions in the contract notice of the procedure you want to challenge.

Period for initiating a review
If you are unsuccessful in your bid, you will be notified of the award decision and the standstill period will begin.
During this waiting period of at least 10 days the contract cannot be signed. This is the period when you can initiate a review procedure.
Even if the standstill period is over, the contract cannot be awarded if there is a review in progress.

If you have taken part in a public tender and feel that you have been discriminated against, or noticed irregularities in the procedure, you can request a review of the procedure or file a complaint.
Contract award decisions are reviewed by the courts or independent review bodies based in the EU country where the tender was published. You can find contact details for the appropriate institutions in the contract notice of the procedure you want to challenge.
Period for initiating a reviewIf you are unsuccessful in your bid, you will be notified of the award decision and the standstill period will begin.
During this waiting period of at least 10 days the contract cannot be signed. This is the period when you can initiate a review procedure.
Even if the standstill period is over, the contract cannot be awarded if there is a review in progress.

Review decision
In cases when the court or review body finds the complaint founded, they may either:

• revoke the award decision
• request that certain parts of the evaluation process are repeated
• cancel the entire procedure

Public contracts awarded without public tenders

You can also request a review of a public contract that was awarded without being put to tender, if you think that a tender should have been published.

You have at least 30 calendar days (but not more than 6 months) after the publication of the contract award notice, or after you found out the contract was awarded, to inform the court or review body.
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Review decision
The court or review body will declare a contract ineffective, shorten it, or fine the buyer if:

• the public authority awarded a contract without prior publication of the contract notice when publication was required
• standstill period was required but not respected)
• there is evidence of discrimination against the rejected bidders