site.btaCourt Overturns Competition Watchdog's Decision on Delivery of 35 Electric Multiple Units

The Supreme Administrative Court has overturned a decision of the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) concerning the delivery of 35 electric multiple units, the court said. The court upheld an appeal filed by the BUL20EMU consortium (Alstom Transport SA, Alstom Ferroviaria SpA and RVP Invest) and overturned a decision by CPC, which had rejected the consortium's complaint regarding the selection of a contractor.

The court ruled that CPC's decision was unjustified and lacked sufficient reasoning and that a new decision must be issued to resolve the dispute.

By the same judgment, the court revoked a decision of the Transport and Communications Minister on the selection, through negotiation without prior notice, a contractor for the Delivery of 35 Single-Deck Zero-Emission Electric Locomotives, with a Capacity of at Least 200 Seats, Maintenance for a Period of 15 Years and Training of Personnel.

The judgment is unappealable.

In late August, a three-judge panel of the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the Transport Minister's request for allowing anticipatory enforcement of a decision to award a public procurement contract. The Commission on Protection of Competition had accepted the Transport Ministry's arguments that any delay would affect critically the deadlines under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The court ruled, however, that the evidence was insufficient to justify allowing anticipatory enforcement of the decision.