Collusion in public procurement - A “notice” from the Commission

The Notice is primarily aimed at (i) Member States and public authorities implementing the EU Directives on public procurement and (ii) public procurement officers applying the implemented public procurement legislation in practice. 

However, the long-awaited Notice is disappointing: while providing some insights into the use of certain concepts (eg standard of proof – see below), it remains unclear how useful it will be in practice, as the Commission did not seize the opportunity to provide concrete examples from various Member States and to refer to Member State guidance and/or case law (like for instance, Germany, which has built up a lot of expertise and case law). 

In addition, the Notice abstractly refers collusion in public procurement’s and its  interplay with competition law and is rather general in nature.