Public Procurement and the EU Competition Rules

Shortlisted for the 2012 Prix Vogel in Economic Law.

Public procurement and competition law are both important fields of EU law and policy, intimately intertwined in the creation of the internal market. Hitherto their close connection has been noted, but not closely examined. This new work is the most comprehensive attempt to date to explain the many ways in which these fields, often considered independent of one another, interact and overlap in the creation of the internal market. In this process of convergence between competition and public procurement law , the need for this joint study is clearly apparent. As such the book asks whether competition law principles inform or condition public procurement rules, and whether they are adequate to ensure that competition is not distorted in markets where public procurement is particularly significant. The book moves away from the classical focus of public procurement on the activities of private actors, developing instead an analytical framework for the appraisal of the market behaviour of the public buyer from a competition perspective. The analysis is both legal and economic. Proceeding through a careful assessment of the general rules of competition and public procurement, the book constantly tests the efficacy of the rules in competition and public procurement against a standard of the proper functioning of undistorted competition in the market for public procurement.

Part I: Introduction
1 Introduction and Framework for Analysis
Part II: Foundations and Principles. The Economic and Legal Basics of Public Procurement and Competition Law
2 An Economic Approach to Public Procurement and Competition
3 Basics of Competition and Public Procurement Regulation
Conclusions to Part II: Legal and Economic Normative Foundations of a More Competition-Oriented Public Procurement System
Part III: General Part—The Building Blocks of a Framework for the Competition Analysis of Public Procurement
4 EU Competition Law and Public Procurement—The Inability of EU Competition Rules to Rein in Anti-Competitive Public Procurement
5 The Principle of Competition Embedded in the EU Public Procurement Directives
Conclusions to Part III: Sketching a Legal Framework to Discipline the Market Behaviour of the Public Buyer and to Guarantee Undistorted Competition in Public Procurement
Part IV: Analysis of Competition Distortions Caused by Public Procurement
6 A Critical Assessment of Current EU Public Procurement Directives and their Case Law from a Competition Perspective—Preventing Competitive Distortions by the Public Buyer
7 Complementary Proposals for the Development of a More Competition-Oriented Public Procurement Framework
Part V: General Conclusions
8 Conclusions of this Study on Public Procurement and the EU Competition Rules—Towards a More Competition-Oriented Procurement System

Graell's book provides an extensive analysis of the variety of ways that public procurement closely interacts with competition laws and policies.
...Graell's book offers a comprehensive insight into EU public procurement and competition laws and policies...the book is researched, argued and presented to a very high standard.
Throughout the book, Graell's analysis is focused and disciplined; the economic and legal building blocks to his argument are set out meticulously. Thus Graells puts forward an essential and original dimension to the public procurement debate that is simultaneously theoretical and practical.

...a daring legal policy analysis founded on economic theory and resulting in a number of recommendations for amendment of the public procurement rules/practices.
...the book is very well written and the reference list is impressive (which in itself makes the book worth reading). I warmly recommend every scholar, with some knowledge of economic theory, interested in the fields of competition and public procurement law to indulge in this book: it is a very welcome contribution to the debate on the interaction between public procurement law and competition law.