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Unsere Standorte

Bid­ders, Appli­cants & Con­trac­tors

The removal of pro­cure­ment bar­ri­ers

Pro­cure­ment blocks are often issued secret­ly. At some point, you are no longer called and are no longer on any bid­der lists. We know when an award block is valid — and what can be done against an ille­gal block.

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Com­mon mis­take

Inves­ti­ga­tion pro­ceed­ings are not enough

As a rule, mere inves­ti­ga­tion pro­ceed­ings do not con­sti­tute a law­ful ban on award­ing con­tracts.

Pos­si­ble way out

Self-clean­ing accord­ing to § 125 GWB

Mar­ket par­tic­i­pa­tion can be restored even in seri­ous cas­es.

What we do for you

Check award block

We will check whether the pub­lic pro­cure­ment ban imposed on you meets the high for­mal and sub­stan­tive require­ments of case law.

Accom­pa­ny self-clean­ing

We guide you through the self-clean­ing process — from orga­ni­za­tion­al mea­sures to rep­re­sen­ta­tion before the com­pe­ti­tion reg­is­ter.

Enforc­ing dam­ages

In the event of an unjus­ti­fied block on the award of a con­tract, we will inform you about claims for dam­ages and enforce them.

You will no longer be called

Pro­cure­ment blocks are often enough issued secret­ly. As a bid­der, you do not get to see any of this. You are no longer being called, you are no longer on any bid­der lists — your com­pa­ny goes qui­et. It is usu­al­ly advis­able to first ask why you are no longer being com­mis­sioned. As a rule, the client will then inform you of the rea­sons.

The case law places high demands on pro­cure­ment freezes — in terms of both form and con­tent. As a rule, mere inves­ti­ga­tion pro­ce­dures are not suf­fi­cient. In our expe­ri­ence, most pro­cure­ment freezes do not meet these require­ments.

Pro­cure­ment block­ing and self-clean­ing

Some­times there is a seri­ous rea­son for a sus­pen­sion: tax­es have not been paid, crim­i­nal offens­es have been com­mit­ted. In such cas­es, self-clean­ing is rec­om­mend­ed. This may require in-depth inter­ven­tion in your com­pa­ny’s orga­ni­za­tion­al struc­tures — or sim­ply the replace­ment of indi­vid­ual employ­ees, the draft­ing of orga­ni­za­tion­al direc­tives or the estab­lish­ment of a bet­ter com­pli­ance sys­tem. We will assess what is nec­es­sary in each indi­vid­ual case and imple­ment it togeth­er with you. This also includes any nec­es­sary rep­re­sen­ta­tion vis-à-vis the com­pe­ti­tion reg­is­ter.

Pro­cure­ment block and com­pen­sa­tion

If you have been the vic­tim of an unjus­ti­fied pro­cure­ment block, you have usu­al­ly also lost out on con­tracts. We know of cas­es in which the bid­der is ranked first in the eval­u­a­tion sequence and receives the terse noti­fi­ca­tion that the con­tract will be award­ed to the sec­ond-placed bid­der due to an award block. Equal­ly liable are con­stel­la­tions in which a bid­der has been award­ed a con­tract for years in the sequen­tial pro­ce­dure but is then removed. In all these cas­es, it is stan­dard prac­tice for our law firm to also inform you about claims for dam­ages.

Typ­i­cal pro­ce­dure

  • No more orders — clar­i­fy the cause
  • Check­ing the legal­i­ty of an award ban
  • Ini­ti­ate and sup­port self-clean­ing if nec­es­sary
  • Con­test­ing an unlaw­ful block
  • Check­ing and enforc­ing claims for dam­ages

Fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions about pro­ce­dur­al sup­port

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

What is an award freeze and is it always legal?

A pro­cure­ment ban excludes a com­pa­ny from par­tic­i­pat­ing in pro­cure­ment pro­ce­dures. It is only law­ful under the legal require­ments. Blan­ket bans with­out a case-by-case exam­i­na­tion are unlaw­ful and can be chal­lenged. Mere inves­ti­ga­tion pro­ceed­ings do not gen­er­al­ly con­sti­tute grounds for exclu­sion. → Have a block checked now

Under cer­tain cir­cum­stances, yes — via the insti­tute of self-clean­ing. The pre­req­ui­site is that the com­pa­ny has tak­en con­crete mea­sures to pre­vent sim­i­lar inci­dents in the future. The client decides whether the mea­sures are suf­fi­cient; its deci­sion is con­testable.

Legal reme­dies are avail­able against reg­is­tra­tion. This should be addressed prompt­ly — every round of ten­der­ing in which you can­not par­tic­i­pate due to reg­is­tra­tion means eco­nom­ic dam­age.

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

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Specialized law firm for public procurement law

Europe-wide expertise in public procurement law - your competent partner in all phases of the procurement process.

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  • Lessingstraße 2
    04109 Leipzig
    Germany
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Alternatively, you can send us your application by mail to: abante Rechtsanwälte | Lessingstr. 2, 04109 Leipzig or send an e-mail to: personal@abante.eu

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