Court rules on the time limit for the bringing of procurement challenges

Under UK and European procurement rules, if a bidder wishes to challenge a government body’s contract award decision, it has to notify the awarding authority of its intention to do so, and must do so “promptly and in any event within 3 months”. A recent decision by the High Court in England shows that if it does not properly respond to a request for clarifications raised by a bidder, a contracting authority could deprive itself of the argument that a challenge brought by that bidder is time-barred.

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