Price investigation
Price investigation is the procedure whereby the contracting authority analyses and compares submitted prices. This includes checking for abnormally low prices, verifying unit prices and assessing the pricing formula.
Kerkfabriek verzuimde abnormaal lage eenheidsprijs te onderzoeken bij dakreparatie
De Raad vernietigde de gunning: hoewel de kerkfabriek in het initiële rapport een eenheidsprijs als abnormaal laag had aangemerkt, onderzocht zij deze niet opnieuw bij de herziene gunningsbeslissing.
Stad Brussel schendt zorgvuldigheidsbeginsel bij prijs- en kostenonderzoek voor asfalteringswerken
De Raad vernietigde de gunningsbeslissing omdat de stad ten onrechte geen zorgvuldig prijsonderzoek uitvoerde: zij verhoogde het wettelijk afwijkingspercentage van 15% naar 25%, waardoor geen prijsbevraging bij de gekozen inschrijver plaatsvond.
Suspension application rejected: all three grounds against award of framework agreement for vehicle towing in Antwerp lack seriousness – price investigation adequate, digital workflow not a minimum requirement, award criteria evaluation within discretionary margin
The Council of State rejected the application for suspension under extreme urgency by the Partnership D.A-M against the City of Antwerp concerning the award of the framework agreement for towing and storing vehicles based on violations to NV D., after all three grounds were found not serious: the price investigation for item 13 (collection fee of €0.10 versus €0.85) was adequate given the nature of the service and the incumbent provider's cost advantage, the 'expectation' of a fully digital system in the specifications was not a minimum requirement whose deviation leads to substantial irregularity, and the evaluation of the award criteria 'service delivery' and 'sustainability' fell within the contracting authority's discretionary margin.
Annulment of Design, Build & Maintain award for administrative centre in Ronse for lack of price investigation – neither integral tenders nor BAFO subjected to effective price or cost investigation and scoring for price criterion does not constitute price investigation
The Council of State annulled the award by the City of Ronse of a Design, Build & Maintain contract for an administrative centre to the temporary association F.-P., because the administrative file did not show that the contracting authority had conducted an effective price or cost investigation under Article 35 of the 2017 Royal Decree on either the integral tenders or the BAFO of the chosen tenderer, nor a regularity investigation under Article 76: the mere scoring for the price criterion does not constitute a price investigation, the correspondence about calculated price revisions concerned only one specific element, and the instruction to mark changes in the BAFO in colour did not prove the investigation had actually been carried out.
Council of State rejects annulment appeal against award of Materialenkaai green space works – price investigation screening method with 0.5 percent threshold of average total price is acceptable and assessment of price justification falls within discretion
The Council of State rejected the annulment appeal by NV C.N. against the award of the public works contract for the construction of a green and recreational space on the Materialenkaai to NV D.A.O., because the screening method used in the price investigation — a threshold of 0.5 percent of the average total price of all submitted tenders to identify non-negligible items — was acceptable and the assessment of the price justification for two items with apparently abnormally low unit prices fell within the contracting authority's discretion.
Emergency suspension request against award of framework agreement for towing and storage of vehicles rejected – discretion in quality assessment, no special price investigation required with only two tenderers
The Council of State rejected the emergency suspension request by BV G. against the award by Police Zone 5366 Geel-Laakdal-Meerhout of a framework agreement for towing, recovery and storage of vehicles to BV M., because none of the three grounds — concerning the environmental permit, the quality assessment and the price investigation — was serious: the contracting authority had discretion in the qualitative evaluation, the specifications expressly allowed the use of subcontractors, and a price difference of 16 percent with only two tenderers did not require a special price investigation.
Suspension application under extreme urgency against exclusion of tender for motorway cleaning on E25 rejected – yield of 6.82 km/h for selective litter picking on foot not manifestly unreasonable as assessed abnormal, and ground concerning unequal treatment in price verification inadmissible for lack of standing
The Council of State rejected the suspension application under extreme urgency by SRL LUX GREEN against the exclusion of its tender by SOFICO for a framework agreement for selective litter picking on the E25 motorway (North Luxembourg district), because the first ground challenging the abnormal price assessment was not serious — the contracting authority had not unreasonably found that a yield of 6.82 km/h for on-foot litter pickers was unrealistic and that the cost of the accompanying vehicle was not included in the price breakdown — and the second ground concerning unequal treatment in the price verification of the selected tenderer was inadmissible for lack of standing, since the applicant's own tender had been validly excluded.
Night medical mail delivery Liège: price verification by hospital purchasing central sufficiently motivated despite succinct formulation
The Council of State rejects a challenge against the award of a contract for night medical mail delivery in the province of Liège, because the contracting authority — acting as purchasing central for four hospitals — conducted a genuine and concrete price verification under Article 36 of the Placement Royal Decree, and the decision's motivation, though succinct and allusive due to confidentiality requirements, sufficiently demonstrates that the chosen tenderer's prices are not abnormal.
Road maintenance Baelen: price justification based on subcontractor offer for different quantities is manifestly unreasonable
The Council of State annuls the award of a road maintenance framework agreement because the contracting authority could not accept the winning tenderer's price justification for three bituminous surface treatment items — a mere reference to a subcontractor's offer without detailed substantiation is insufficient, and the subcontractor calculated prices based on 1,000 m² while the bill of quantities specified 100 m², meaning the unit prices for the bill quantities were not justified.
Framework agreement for public cloud Copernicus data: competitive advantage from prior involvement in earth observation programme is legitimate
The Council of State rejects a cloud service provider's challenge against the award of an IaaS framework agreement for Copernicus earth observation data, finding that the winning tenderer's competitive advantage — having the data already available on its cloud through involvement in the Copernicus programme — is legitimate, the price investigation for intellectual services with wide price margins was diligent, and the lower technical quality score was attributable to the applicant's own failure to provide concrete information on scalability and data capacity.
Missing unit prices in bill of quantities does not constitute substantial irregularity when total prices per item are filled in
The Council of State rejects the annulment appeal against the award of a construction contract for an agri-food platform in Gambia, ruling that the failure to fill in unit prices in the bill of quantities does not constitute a substantial irregularity when total prices per item are filled in and unit prices can be derived through simple division.
A mere price confirmation does not constitute an adequate price investigation when the tender price is significantly lower
The Council of State suspends the award of a transactional printing contract because the contracting authority failed to conduct an adequate general price investigation on the significantly lower total price of the chosen tenderer, and limited itself to a meaningless price confirmation for a remarkably low unit price instead of initiating a special investigation into abnormal prices.
Rejection of extreme urgency suspension against award of renovation works for Park Groot Schijn caravan site — correction of material error in item 50 (heat pump boilers, typo '4' instead of '1' on numeric keypad) correctly applied under art. 34 KB — material error may also be discovered and corrected during price investigation — motivation in award report and supplementary email sufficient
The Council of State rejected the extreme urgency suspension claim by TM L.-H. against the City of Antwerp's award of renovation works for the Park Groot Schijn caravan site (Deurne) to NV A., where the contracting authority correctly corrected a purely material error in item 50 (heat pump boilers) under Article 34 KB — the tenderer had typed '4' instead of '1' when copying price data from its subcontractor's offer (keys directly above each other on the numeric keypad), making the unit price approximately four times higher than intended, and the Council held that a material error discovered during price investigation may still be corrected.
Rejection of extreme urgency suspension against irregularity declaration for framework agreement bank works Resilient Westhoek — price justification rightly rejected due to missing overhead on study portion, unsubstantiated unit prices and post factum justification — negligible items correctly delineated using 0.25% threshold
The Council of State rejected the extreme urgency suspension claim by TM B.-G.D. against the Vlaamse Waterweg's declaration of their offer for the 'Resilient Westhoek – Bank Works' framework agreement (€30 million) as substantially irregular, as the authority did not exceed its assessment margin: the 0.25% threshold for negligible items was carefully determined, the grounds for rejecting the price justification were sound, and arguments not included in the actual price justification were post factum justifications the authority need not consider.
Suspension of award of insurance brokerage pooling contract for Flemish government entities – statement of reasons for price investigation is mere boilerplate: estimate redacted, justification elements not concretely assessed, reasons communicated ex post via observations and intervention request
The Council of State suspended the award by the Flemish Community of an insurance brokerage pooling contract for Flemish government entities to NV A., because the first limb of the single ground was serious: the statement of reasons for the price investigation in the award report was mere boilerplate — the estimate was redacted, the three justification elements from the price justification were adopted without concrete assessment, and the redaction of essential reasons in the version communicated to the applicant violated the formal statement of reasons obligation.
Optimistic soil reuse (60%) without screening or soil improvement costs does not justify abnormally low earthworks prices
The Council of State rejects the challenge against the exclusion of a tender for sewer and road works because the price justification for the total price and eleven earthworks items was rightly rejected: the tenderer assumed an insufficiently substantiated 60% soil reuse rate without costs for screening or soil improvement.
Price justification for NMBS tilting poles passes scrutiny: legal presumption of abnormal prices does not apply in simplified negotiated procedure
The Council of State rejects the suspension request because the legal presumption of abnormal prices under Article 44 §4 of the Royal Decree of 18 June 2017 does not apply to the simplified negotiated procedure, and the NMBS carefully examined and accepted the price justification of the awarded joint venture for multifunctional tilting poles on sound grounds.
Second challenge against NMBS tilting poles rejected: distinction between negotiation and price justification, selective special price investigation permitted
The Council of State also rejects the application of another tenderer against the same NMBS award for tilting poles, clarifying that a price justification is not a negotiation, that the special price investigation may be applied selectively to the first-ranked tenderer, and that repeated inquiry is permitted.
Interlocutory ruling fire tower Kalmthout: first plea on selection criteria references rejected, debate reopened for price investigation
Interlocutory ruling: in Swinnen's annulment appeal against the award for building a fire tower on the Kalmthout Heath, the first plea — regarding the selected tenderer's reference selection criteria — is rejected in all its branches; the appeal against the implicit refusal decision is inadmissible; the debate is reopened for the second plea (price investigation) and damages.
Municipality of Westerlo must thoroughly examine unit prices in cemetery pavilion construction
Suspension ordered: Municipality of Westerlo examined only total prices but not unit prices when awarding farewell pavilion construction on cemeteries, despite large deviation percentages per item.
Council of State suspends award of school window replacement contract in Brussels due to reference outside five-year period and inadequate price examination
The Council of State suspended on an emergency basis the award by the City of Brussels of a contract for the replacement of wooden window frames in the Queen Astrid school, because the selected tenderer had submitted a reference falling outside the five-year period required by the specifications and the general price examination was not supported by sound and careful reasoning.
Withdrawal of award decision for ARP debt recovery contract: UDN rejected – grounds challenge only surplus reasons, not the supporting grounds regarding lawyer costs and fee-sharing
The Council of State rejects the emergency suspension request by a bailiff against the withdrawal of the award decision for a debt recovery advisory contract, because the first two grounds only challenge surplus reasons regarding four zero-priced items without contesting the supporting grounds — regarding uncovered lawyer costs and fee-sharing contrary to the Royal Decree of 30 November 1976 — and because the third ground is directed against a non-existent future award decision.
School Het Oogappeltje Wommelgem: annulment – abnormal price detection method unverifiable and price investigation of selected items insufficient
The Council of State annuls for the second time the award decision of the municipality of Wommelgem for the extension and renovation of primary school Het Oogappeltje, because the submitted documents do not show that the detection of apparently abnormal unit prices was carried out in accordance with the contracting authority's own methodology — using a 1% rule and 30%/50% thresholds — and because the investigation of the selected items did not meet the requirements of a normally diligent contracting authority, as abnormal unit prices were accepted based on vague and general findings without requesting price justification.
Zandvliet waiting dock: rejection of annulment appeal – negative unit prices for soil disposal in Rotterdam insufficiently justified, contracting authority's assessment margin not exceeded
The Council of State rejects the annulment appeal by the temporary association HYE–Boskalis against the award by De Vlaamse Waterweg for the construction of a waiting dock at Zandvliet, because the negative unit prices for soil disposal in Rotterdam (-€4/m³ and -€5/m³ for items 2 and 3 of conditional part 1) were insufficiently justified — the adjustment of a reference price for Maas sand of €6.50/m³ down to €4 and €5/m³ due to 'lesser quality' lacked further specification or argumentation, and the contracting authority did not exceed its assessment margin.
Suspension of award of video software for fire service dispatching — zero price for implementation item renders scoring formula unworkable and grants disproportionate advantage
The Council of State suspends the award of a services contract for video call software for Brussels fire service dispatching (NC 112) to Bliksund Denmark, because the chosen tenderer entered a zero price for item 1 (implementation and commissioning) while services were clearly still required, rendering the scoring formula (lowest price / offered price × weight) unworkable — all other tenderers automatically received 0 points on this sub-criterion — and granting a disproportionate advantage by shifting costs from item 1 to item 2.
Rejection of suspension application for framework agreement for driftwood clearance from waterways — price investigation of total price and acceptance of non-quantified justification within margin of discretion
The Council of State rejects the urgent suspension application by NV Krinkels against the award of a framework agreement for clearing driftwood and debris from waterways of the Flemish Waterway to NV Stadsbader, finding all three pleas unserious: Stadsbader's offer complies with the specifications (the 'sloop' corresponds to the 'tugboat with pontoon'), and the price investigation in which non-quantified but plausible elements were considered in assessing the total price falls within the contracting authority's margin of discretion.
School construction at Jemeppe-sur-Sambre: second suspension – responding to a price justification request by invoking a material error does not constitute a unilateral modification of the tender
The Council of State orders, for the second time, the suspension of the French Community's decision to award the school construction contract at Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, because the contracting authority committed a manifest error of assessment by qualifying as a substantive irregularity (unilateral modification of the tender) the tenderer's response to a price justification request in which it invoked a material error.
Building maintenance framework agreement: suspension for inadequate price verification – verification on only 3 of 292 items (less than 1%) is insufficient
The Council of State suspends the Brussels Port's decision to award a building maintenance framework agreement to IN ADVANCE, because the contracting entity verified prices on only 3 of the 292 items in the bill of quantities — less than 1% — by excluding all items deemed 'negligible' (less than 3% of the average global price), while articles 84 of the Law of 17 June 2016 and 43 of the Royal Decree of 18 June 2017 require verification of all unit prices.
Rejection of extreme urgency suspension against De Lijn bus transport award West 1 — lot combination is not an essential modification, LEZ decree not yet in force, and price investigation was thorough despite 36.5% price difference
The Council of State rejects the extreme urgency suspension request by BV Ganda Cars against the award of lot 6 (Ghent region) of the contract for exploitation and greening of bus transport by De Lijn (West 1, 18 lots), because none of the three pleas — essential modification of specifications through lot combination, irregularity due to LEZ regulations, and insufficient price investigation despite a 36.5% price difference — was found to be serious.
Annulment of lot 2 award of military works framework agreement — failure to verify global price of tenders due to confusion about scope of Article 36 §4
The Council of State annuls the award of lot 2 (Florennes zone) of a works framework agreement for maintenance of road infrastructure in military quarters of the Defence because the contracting authority failed to verify the global price of selected tenders, wrongly considering that Article 36 §4 of the Royal Decree of 18 April 2017 exempted it from this verification when fewer than four tenders were selected.
Suspension of Cirque Royal cleaning contract award — insufficient unit price verification despite applicant's irregular tender
The Council of State suspends the award of the Cirque Royal cleaning contract to Group Cleaning Services because the administrative file does not establish that the contracting authority verified the unit prices of the remaining tenders — Article 36 §4 of the Royal Decree of 18 April 2017 (15% threshold) constituting an additional obligation that does not relieve the authority of its general price verification obligation under Article 84 of the Act of 17 June 2016 and Articles 33 and 35 of the Royal Decree.
This page shows all rulings of the Council of State (Belgium's supreme administrative court) on price investigation in public procurement. Each ruling is summarized by TenderWolf in plain language, with a legal lesson and a practical question to ask yourself. View all rulings →