As mutual relations between competition law and public procurement law become clearer, the two areas cannot be treated separately. Consequently, it is necessary to assess participants of the public procurement market (both contractors and contracting authorities) also from the perspective of the broadly understood competition rules - these are one of the most important proposals that have been formulated in the course of the conference "Competition Law and Public procurement - two sides of the same coin", which took place on 12 June in Warsaw. The conference organized by the Public Procurement Law Association was attended by scientists, experts and practitioners of the public procurement and competition law, both from Poland and abroad (including from Lithuania, Germany and the UK).
The conference “Competition Law and Public Procurement - two sides of the same coin” was held on Tuesday, 12 June. The event was dedicated to distortions of competition in public tenders from the perspective of competition law and public procurement law.
The organizer - the Public Procurement Law Association - invited experts and practitioners from Poland and abroad who work in the field of public procurement law and competition law.
Guests had the opportunity to attend lectures on the distortion of competition due to the behaviour of contracting authorities and contractors, events of abuse of dominant positions on the public procurement market and recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the ‘self-cleaning’ institution. The panel’s participants discussed, among others, how to handle competition breaching behaviour in the course of tender proceedings and how contracting authorities should counteract the abuse of contractual advantage .
Contributions were delivered by Dr Albert Sánchez Graells of Bristol University, Dr Igor B. Nestoruk of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Ms. Irma Urmonaitė, a representative of the Lithuanian Competition Office, Dr Anna Blume Huttenlauch of the German law firm Blomstein and Dr Wojciech Hartung a representative of the Association. Panel discussions were also attended by representatives of state institutions, including among others, Ms. Małgorzata Stręciwilk, President of the Public Procurement Office, Ms. Małgorzata Rakowska, President of the National Appeal Chamber, Ms. Magdalena Grabarczyk, Vice-president of the National Appeals Chamber, Professor Marta Romańska, a judge of the Supreme Court, as well as representatives of the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection and representatives of the contracting authorities and contractors.
Selected power point presentations are available for download here:
