Appeal against flawed contract award decisions in Finland

In the event of a flawed contract award, tenderers can bring legal proceedings before the Market Court, whereby extremely short periods of limitation apply.

As a rule, proceedings must be instigated directly following the contract award decision. However, where a tenderer has already been ruled out of the procedure by a preceding decision (e.g. in the qualification procedure), this prior decision must be promptly appealed against.

Under normal circumstances, before concluding the award of contract the contracting authority is required to wait for the final decision in the legal proceedings. Where the legal action is successful, the award of contract must be repeated while ensuring avoidance of the established flaw.

However, particularly in the case of major infrastructure projects, in the interests of expediency the contracting authority will often be authorised by the Market Court to execute the contract award decision. Where the contract is duly concluded, it will not be rendered invalid in the event that the contract award decision is subsequently judged unlawful.

In this case, the petitioner will only be entitled to financial compensation; however, such a claim can only be asserted where it can be shown with a probability bordering on certainty, that the party in question would have successfully been awarded the contract had the decision been flawless.