Worth knowing about procurement rules
The procurement rules encompass a wide range of regulations, including the EU procurement directives (i.e. the Public Procurement Directive, the Utilities Directive, the Concessions Directive and the Defense and Security Directive), the Public Procurement Act, the Tenders Act and the TFEU Treaty. The procurement area is also regulated by some general principles of equal treatment, transparency, proportionality and non-discrimination.
Complaints about tenders are usually handled by the Complaints Board for Public Procurement, which in case of violation of the procurement rules has the possibility to cancel the contracting entity's decisions, award damages, declare a contract ineffective, etc. The detailed regulation of this is found in the Complaints Board Act, which replaced the Enforcement Act on January 1, 2016.
For an overview of the procurement rules, see Kammeradvokaten/Advokatfirmaet Poul Schmith's procurement overview here.
The procurement rules contain threshold values that determine whether a contract is subject to mandatory tendering under the EU procurement directives. Only if the contract value is above the relevant threshold value is the contract subject to tendering under the given set of rules.
The Tender Act's rules on construction works must be followed by municipal ports and autonomous ports if the contract value is below approximately DKK 41.3 million, even if the construction work is for the use of the utility company (See all thresholds here). This is also the case for municipal public limited company ports that meet the conditions to be a "contracting authority".
Danske Havnes assessment is that municipal ports and municipal autonomous ports will undoubtedly be covered by the concept of "public law body". In addition, limited liability company ports will generally have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, as ownership and control may be different, but that limited liability company ports that are 100% municipally owned will probably always be subject to control by the municipality in the form of the appointment of management members, that they will be considered public law bodies and thus also be covered by the concept of contracting entity in the Public Procurement Act.
