Clyde Procure Alert: Too Good To Be True? 'Free' Contracts And Public Procurement

Contracting authorities are commonly offered pilots, trials or wholly "free of charge" goods, works or services. Contractors wishing to break into a new market, or expand their market share, often take a commercial view to undercut their competition.

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("Regulations") and the public procurement directives, define a public contract as "contracts for pecuniary interest concluded in writing between one or more economic operators and one or more contracting authorities and having as their object the execution of works, the supply of products or the provision of services". It has always been clear that "pecuniary interest" has a wider application than simply cash payments in return for the goods, works or services.

A recent case from the Court of Justice of the European Union (C 606/17 IBA Molecular Italy...