A national sports federation can be subject to EU public procurement rules, provided it is under the control of a sufficiently influential public authority, according to a judgment by the EU Court of Justice on Wednesday 3 February.
The Court ruled in Joined Cases C-155/19 and C-156/19, which pitted the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) against a tenderer, alleging that it had failed to comply with the rules on publication laid down in public procurement regulations, in the context of a negotiated procedure.
The Court was asked to determine whether FIGC met the conditions required by EU Directive 2014/24 to qualify as a “body governed by public law” and thus be required to apply the standards relating to the awarding of public procurement.
In its judgment, the institution observes, first of all, that the FIGC may be regarded as having been created to satisfy needs in the general interest which are not of an industrial or commercial nature and may, as such, be subject to the rules on the awarding of public procurement, even though it has the legal form of a private law association.
For such an entity to qualify as a “body governed by public law”, its management must, however, be subject to the control of a public authority, in this case the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI).
The Court considers here that a public administration such as CONI cannot, a priori, be regarded as a hierarchical body capable of controlling the management of a national federation. Such an administration does not, in fact, regulate the daily practice of sports disciplines.
But such a presumption can be rebutted, the Court says, if it is established that the CONI has powers to influence FIGC’s decisions on public procurement.
It will be up to the Italian Council of State to verify the existence of such influence - which is rather unlikely, however, according to the Court, given “the management autonomy conferred on national sports federations in Italy”.
Link to the judgment: http://bit.ly/2YKjC04 (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)