Procurement law

What we can do for you

Daily court decisions show time and again that contracting parties and market parties submitting tenders may come up against a whole lot of questions, such as the following:

• Is the contracting authority’s description of the work in the tender documents sufficiently precise?
• Are the tenderers at an unfair disadvantage with respect to the current contractor?
• When does a contracting authority have the right to withdraw an invitation to tender and replace it with a new one that fits in better with its own requirements and perceptions?
• In the latter case, are you as a tenderer entitled to compensation?
• If a contract has already been awarded, is it possible to alter or extend it in the interim?

Issuing tenders

Ploum can help you from start to finish during each phase of a tendering procedure. For example, we can assist you in preparing and drawing up a tender procedure, and we can also advise you on all the problems you may encounter during this procedure, such as objections from the market. If necessary, we will take the initiative and represent your interests vis-à-vis your partners and/or tenderers or potential tenderers out of court, but also in court or before the Procurement Experts Committee (in Dutch: Commissie van Aanbesteding Experts) if the need should arise.

Tendering for a contract

As a tenderer in a tender process, you can engage Ploum as a fully-fledged member of a bid team or as your advisor in the event of any questions relating to procurement law which may arise. One example is if you submitted a tender for a public contract, but you were not awarded this contract and you feel that this is unfair. Of course we will not hesitate to take the matter to court, but only after we have given you clear advice on the proceedings.

Complicated problems relating to procurement law

Our expertise in the field of procurement law goes further than advising and litigating on regular tenders issued by the government and contracts in the IT, energy, education, insurance and care sectors. At Ploum, our experts also have wide experience of more complicated problems relating to procurement law. These include consortia, concessions, in-house provision and outsourcing, horizontal public collaboration, 2B services, best value procurement and voluntary private tenders. As well as competition-related dialogue, negotiated procedures with or without notice, and service provision by another contracting authority pursuant to exclusive rights.