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Unsere Standorte

Bid­ders, Appli­cants & Con­trac­tors

The com­plaint and the review pro­ce­dure

If you do not sub­mit a com­plaint in good time, you lose your right to review. We for­mu­late com­plaints in due time and form — and rep­re­sent you before the pro­cure­ment cham­ber if the con­tract­ing author­i­ty does not rem­e­dy the sit­u­a­tion.

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Notice peri­od for rec­og­nized vio­la­tions

10 days

From pos­i­tive knowl­edge of the breach of con­tract — absolute, no rein­state­ment.

What we do for you

For­mu­late rep­ri­mands

We for­mu­late com­plaints in due time and form — with the sole aim of secur­ing you the con­tract.

Review pro­ce­dure

We rep­re­sent you before the pub­lic pro­cure­ment tri­bunal. Expe­ri­ence from a three-dig­it num­ber of review pro­ceed­ings.

Check rejec­tion let­ter

On the day of receipt, we check whether a com­plaint has any prospect of suc­cess and what steps are appro­pri­ate.

Bid­ders must rep­ri­mand if they want to pre­serve their rights

In pub­lic pro­cure­ment law, there is an oblig­a­tion to give notice of defects. In the upper thresh­old seg­ment, it is reg­u­lat­ed by sim­ple law. Accord­ing to this pro­vi­sion, any vio­la­tions of pub­lic pro­cure­ment law rec­og­niz­able from the con­tract notice or the ten­der doc­u­ments must be report­ed by the end of the dead­line for sub­mit­ting a request to par­tic­i­pate or the ten­der dead­line. If the award error has been pos­i­tive­ly iden­ti­fied, the peri­od for lodg­ing a com­plaint is only 10 days from the date of knowl­edge.
In the sub-thresh­old area, it is a bit more com­pli­cat­ed. In some cas­es, state pro­cure­ment laws pro­vide for a require­ment to give notice of defects, in oth­ers, case law has cre­at­ed an oblig­a­tion to give notice of defects. Your spe­cial­ist lawyer for pub­lic pro­cure­ment law should know all of this — this is the core knowl­edge of a spe­cial­ized law firm.

Any con­duct of the con­tract­ing author­i­ty is a suit­able object of com­plaint

In prin­ci­ple, your com­plaint can relate to any con­duct in the award pro­ce­dure — a spe­cif­ic for­mu­la­tion in the award doc­u­ments, the exclu­sion of your ten­der, a poor eval­u­a­tion or a state­ment made by the con­tract­ing author­i­ty in a joint meet­ing. With your com­plaint, you are ask­ing the con­tract­ing author­i­ty to rem­e­dy the sit­u­a­tion and elim­i­nate the award­ing error.

Very often it is advis­able to rep­ri­mand after receiv­ing the rejec­tion let­ter. Don’t waste any time — call us on the day you receive it. Dead­lines are tight, you have no time to lose.

The rep­ri­mand is the gate­way to the review pro­ce­dure

If you do not give notice of defects, you can­not request a suc­cess­ful review. You should there­fore lodge a com­plaint even if you believe that the client will not move any­way. You must ini­ti­ate the review pro­ce­dure after the deci­sion not to grant redress — there is also a dead­line for this — or even before. We have expe­ri­ence from a three-dig­it num­ber of review pro­ceed­ings.

The course of the review pro­ce­dure

After receiv­ing the appli­ca­tion, the award­ing cham­ber exam­ines whether the appli­ca­tion is obvi­ous­ly inad­mis­si­ble or unfound­ed. Only the noti­fi­ca­tion to the con­tract­ing author­i­ty has the effect of pro­hibit­ing the award of the con­tract. We there­fore attach par­tic­u­lar impor­tance to time­ly deliv­ery of the appli­ca­tion — before the ear­li­est pos­si­ble award date. The pro­cure­ment cham­ber should decide with­in five weeks; an imme­di­ate appeal against its deci­sion can be lodged with the High­er Region­al Court.

What applies below the EU thresh­olds?

In the sub-thresh­old area, there is no real review pro­ce­dure in most fed­er­al states. Com­pa­ra­ble pro­ce­dures are only pos­si­ble in Sax­ony-Anhalt, Thuringia and Rhineland-Palati­nate. In oth­er fed­er­al states, well-found­ed com­plaints or appli­ca­tions for inter­im injunc­tions can influ­ence the award pro­ce­dure in your favor. Oth­er­wise, com­pen­sa­tion for dam­ages may help in the sub-thresh­old seg­ment. Con­tact us in good time.

Typ­i­cal pro­ce­dure

  • Rec­og­nize breach of con­tract — dead­line runs imme­di­ate­ly
  • Con­tact a spe­cial­ist lawyer on the same day
  • For­mu­late a com­plaint and sub­mit it on time
  • Wait for non-rejec­tion — pre­pare request for review
  • Con­duct pro­ceed­ings before the pub­lic pro­cure­ment cham­ber

Fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about com­plaints and the review pro­ce­dure

Gen­er­al ini­tial ori­en­ta­tion — no sub­sti­tute for legal advice in indi­vid­ual cas­es.

Do I real­ly have to file a com­plaint before I file a request for review?

In the upper thresh­old area, yes — the com­plaint is a statu­to­ry admis­si­bil­i­ty require­ment for the appli­ca­tion for review. Any­one who does not sub­mit a com­plaint in good time los­es the right to a review. Whether and how a com­plaint should be made depends on the spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion. → More on the review pro­ce­dure

Rec­og­nized vio­la­tions must be report­ed with­in ten days — from the moment you have pos­i­tive­ly rec­og­nized the vio­la­tion. For vio­la­tions that were rec­og­niz­able from the ten­der doc­u­ments, the ten­der dead­line is the lim­it. The dead­lines are absolute; there is no rein­state­ment.

This is not the end. In many cas­es, it is pos­si­ble to file an appli­ca­tion for review with the com­pe­tent pro­cure­ment cham­ber. Whether this makes sense in your sit­u­a­tion depends on the indi­vid­ual case. The dead­lines for this are tight — don’t wait.

Note: No legal advice. All answers do not replace an indi­vid­ual exam­i­na­tion by a lawyer.

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    04109 Leipzig
    Germany
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