Procurement challenges in 2025

❗ Key observations:
• 299 challenges were submitted to the Public Procurement Review Committee, which is 16% more than the year before.
• Of the challenges admitted to proceedings, 71 were fully or partially upheld, while 121 were dismissed.
• The average length of challenge proceedings was 22 days.

📝 Substantively, most challenges concerned decisions of contracting authorities, in particular:
• the award of the contract to a successful tender,
• the rejection of a tender or declaring a tender compliant,
• qualification decisions and exclusion from the procurement procedure.

⛔ Challenges were often not examined where:
• the contracting authority remedied the contested breach or declared its decision invalid,
• the challenger lacked standing, or procedural deficiencies occurred.

The statistics also show that the highest number of challenges were submitted in relation to procurements conducted by certain major contracting authorities. Some of the disputes (49) proceeded to court, where complaints were mostly dismissed (22 dismissed and 9 terminated on other grounds). This means that only in 8 cases were complaints fully or partially upheld by the courts.

👉 What does this practice indicate?

The increase in the number of challenges reflects continued activity in the public procurement market and shows that tenderers are consciously making use of legal remedies. At the same time, the statistics underline the importance of high-quality procurement documents, well-reasoned decisions, and strict compliance with procedural requirements—both for contracting authorities and tenderers.

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❓ What changes in public procurement dispute practice might we expect in the coming years?