Sleva z kupni ceny smlouva muze byt verejnou zakazkou

A discount on the purchase price? Beware - the contract may be a public contract!

The Chairman of the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter the "Office") in his decision on the appeal of 16 June 2023, file no. ÚOHS-R0057/2023/VZ, has finally confirmed the legal opinion expressed in the first-instance decision of the Office that a discount on the purchase price may in specific cases constitute a payment/compensation for the performance of a public contract that must be awarded under the Czech Public Procurement Act.

In the case at hand, the town of Moravská Třebová concluded a preliminary contract for the purpose of selling land plots for the construction of a shopping centre. Subsequently, the town entered into several amendments to the contract with the future buyer, on the basis of which the future buyer undertook to build transport and technical infrastructure on the transferred land, for which the town granted him a discount on the purchase price of over CZK 25,000,000. The Office examined the entire situation and concluded in its decision that the case involved a public works contract with a performance value of a discount on the purchase price, which the town was obliged to award in a tender procedure under the Czech Public Procurement Act.

According to the decision of the Office, by violating this obligation the town of Moravská Třebová committed an offence for which it was fined CZK 1,000,000, which was subsequently reduced to CZK 400,000 by decision of the Chairman of the Office.

As can be seen from the above, public procurement can take many forms. Particularly in contractual relations with the public sector, it is therefore necessary to assess each contract and each contractual arrangement, including amendments thereto, with due care.

If you would like more detailed information, please contact the authors of this article or other members of EY Law or the EY team with whom you work.

Authors:

Jan Turek

Jakub Marko