What Is a Standstill Period After a Public Tender Award?

What is a standstill period after a public tender award?

A standstill period is the pause, where the law requires one, between notification of the award decision and signature of the contract. The authority has chosen the tender it intends to accept. It may not conclude the contract until the period stated for this award has ended, unless a derogation applies. Unsuccessful tenderers use the time to read the reasons and, where they have a right, to seek review while the decision can still be revisited.

Where Directive 2014/24/EU applies, the minimum comes from Article 2a of Directive 89/665/EEC, the Remedies Directive, as amended by Directive 2007/66/EC. If the award decision is sent by fax or electronic means, the contract may not be concluded before at least 10 calendar days, counted from the day after the decision is sent to the tenderers and candidates concerned. If another means is used, the minimum is 15 calendar days from the day after sending, or 10 calendar days from the day after receipt. A Member State may set a longer period. The letter states the period national law applies to this award. A count made from the directive is a check. The date in the letter is the date the team uses.

Article 2a treats a tenderer as concerned if it has not yet been definitively excluded. An exclusion is definitive when it has been notified and has either been held lawful by an independent review body or can no longer be reviewed. A candidate is concerned if the authority did not provide information about the rejection of the application before it notified the award decision to the tenderers. Below the EU thresholds, national rules apply, and they may not require a standstill. The notice names the regime.

The standstill is time to read the decision against the tender you already submitted.

Why does a standstill period exist?

The pause exists so that review is still useful. In Case C-81/98, Alcatel Austria, the Court of Justice held on 28 October 1999 that the review procedures required by Directive 89/665/EEC had to be available before the contract was concluded. After signature, setting the award decision aside is often no longer the remedy. Directive 2007/66/EC wrote the pause into Article 2a and required the award communication to carry the reasons and a precise statement of the standstill.

Article 2(3) of Directive 89/665/EEC adds a further rule for the period after a review has started. When an independent first-instance body reviews an award decision, the authority cannot conclude the contract before that body has decided on interim measures or on the review. The suspension ends no earlier than the standstill in Article 2a(2). National law sets the procedure. The standstill itself is not a case, and a message to the evaluator is not an application to a review body.

Article 2b allows Member States to disapply the minimum in three situations. The procurement directive did not require prior publication of a contract notice in the Official Journal. The only concerned tenderer is the one awarded the contract, and there are no concerned candidates. Or the contract is based on a framework agreement under Article 33 of Directive 2014/24/EU, or is a specific contract under a dynamic purchasing system under Article 34. Where a Member State uses that framework or dynamic-purchasing derogation, Articles 2b and 2d still provide for ineffectiveness if the call-off rules those articles name are infringed and the value meets the thresholds in Article 4.

What must the award notification contain?

Article 2a requires the communication of the award decision to each concerned tenderer and candidate to include two things. The first is a summary of the relevant reasons in Article 55(2) of Directive 2014/24/EU, subject to the withholding in Article 55(3). The second is a precise statement of the exact standstill under the national rule that transposes Article 2a.

Article 55(2) describes those reasons. On a written request, the authority tells an unsuccessful candidate why the request to participate was rejected, and an unsuccessful tenderer why the tender was rejected. A tenderer that submitted an admissible tender is told the characteristics and relative advantages of the selected tender, and the name of the successful tenderer or the parties to the framework agreement. Where a negotiation or a dialogue took place, that tenderer is also told how it was conducted. The authority answers as quickly as possible, and in any event within 15 days of the written request. Article 55(3) allows information to be withheld where release would impede law enforcement, be contrary to the public interest, prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of a particular operator, or prejudice fair competition.

The standstill letter and the Article 55 request run on different clocks. The letter should already contain a summary. A later request does not, by itself, move the signature date. If the standstill is ten days and the Article 55 answer may take fifteen, the team reads what it already has and takes advice inside the shorter period. Article 21 limits disclosure of information an operator has designated as confidential, including trade secrets. Information you do receive about another tenderer stays with the people who need it for this decision.

What can a losing bidder do during the standstill?

North Quay Facilities Ltd, a fictional bidder, has lost a three-year municipal building-maintenance contract. The portal message of 3 November names Hale Civic Works Ltd. The award criteria were price 40 and quality 60. North Quay's total is 79. Hale's is 83. The message states that the contract will not be signed before 14 November. That is the date the team diaries. A colleague who counts ten days from 3 November and lands on another day is applying a different rule from the one written in the letter.

On quality, one sub-criterion is inspection frequency. The comment says North Quay's method statement offers a weekly inspection of the plant rooms. Page 14 of the submitted method says monthly inspections and a same-week call-out. The commercial director drafts an email offering weekly inspections and a lower price, to go before 14 November. That email would be a new tender. The bid lead keeps the portal message, the score sheet, and page 14, and does not send the email. Whether the comment is a reason to seek review is a question for a lawyer, read against the award criteria and the date in the letter.

Signing before the period ends does not let the losing bidder cancel the contract. Article 2d of Directive 89/665/EEC requires a review body, independent of the authority, to treat a contract as ineffective in the cases that article lists. Those cases include an award without a prior contract notice where Directive 2014/24/EU required one, and a breach of the standstill or of the suspension in Article 2(3) that removed the chance of a pre-contractual remedy and is combined with another infringement that affected the tenderer's chances of obtaining the contract. Article 2e allows Member States to provide ineffectiveness or alternative penalties for a standstill breach outside that case. National law sets the consequence. A review body decides it.

What is a debrief, and what can it change?

A debrief is the explanation of the assessment. Under Article 2a, a summary of the Article 55(2) reasons travels with the award decision. Article 55(2) still allows a written request for the reasons that paragraph lists. The explanation describes how the submitted tender was read. It does not ask the tenderer to improve it.

In an open procedure the offer closed at submission. A clarification question before the tender deadline is shared with the other tenderers. A later question about the tender already submitted explains that tender. Standstill sits after both. The award decision has been made. A debrief that shows a gap in the method is information for the next bid, or for a lawyer looking at this decision. It is not a negotiation of this one.

Read the comment against the criterion, the weighting, and the page of the tender it cites. A score the team dislikes is a reaction. A comment that describes a different tender from the one submitted is a fact to record, with the page. The people who would instruct a lawyer decide whether the point supports a review. This record gives them the pages. It does not make that decision.

How do France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States handle this?

France. For a contract awarded by a formalised procedure, Article R2182-1 of the Code de la commande publique requires at least eleven days between the sending of the notification in Articles R2181-1 and R2181-3 and the date the buyer signs, or sixteen days if that notification was not sent electronically. Where the rejection is notified after award, Article R2181-3 requires the reasons for rejection, the name of the successful tenderer, the reasons for choosing that offer, and the date from which the buyer may sign. Article R2182-2 does not require the period when the contract is awarded to the only operator that took part, or for a subsequent contract based on a framework agreement or a specific contract based on a dynamic purchasing system. The référé précontractuel, in Articles L551-1 and following of the Code de justice administrative, is the review available before signature. Article R2182-1 is written for a formalised procedure, so a procédure adaptée follows the rule that applies to that procedure.

Germany. § 134 of the Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen requires the authority to inform, in text form and without delay, each bidder whose tender is not to be accepted. The information names the company whose tender is to be accepted, the reasons for the intended rejection, and the earliest moment the contract may be signed. The same duty covers a candidate who was not told of the rejection before that information went to the bidders. The contract may be concluded only 15 calendar days after the information is sent, or 10 calendar days if it is sent electronically or by fax. The period starts the day after sending and does not depend on the day the bidder reads the message. The duty does not apply to a negotiated procedure without a call for competition justified by particular urgency, or to a call-off under a framework agreement or a dynamic purchasing system. Under § 169(1), the prohibition on award starts when the chair or the full-time member of the Vergabekammer informs the authority of a review application. It then runs until the chamber's decision is announced and the appeal period in § 172(1) has ended, unless it ends sooner because the authority succeeds before the chamber. § 160(3) makes an application inadmissible where the applicant recognised the infringement and did not complain to the authority within ten calendar days, and in the other cases that paragraph lists. The end of the § 134 period is unaffected by that complaint rule. Below the EU thresholds, other German rules apply.

United Kingdom. Procurements in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland started on or after 24 February 2025 follow the Procurement Act 2023. Scotland has its own legislation. Section 50 requires a contract award notice before the authority enters into a public contract. For an award under section 19, the authority must first provide an assessment summary to each supplier that submitted an assessed tender. Regulation 31 of the Procurement Regulations 2024 sets out the scores and the explanations and, for any other assessed tender, the assessment of the most advantageous tender. The summaries are provided at the same time, and before the notice is published. Section 51 then imposes a mandatory standstill of eight working days beginning with the day the contract award notice is published. Cabinet Office guidance treats the publication day as working day one. Weekends and bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom do not count. The authority may not enter the contract before the end of that period or, if later, a longer standstill set out in the notice. Section 51(3) disapplies the mandatory period for a direct award in extreme and unavoidable urgency, a direct award to protect life under regulations made under section 42, a direct award by a private utility, an award in accordance with a framework, an award by reference to a dynamic market, and a light touch contract. A voluntary standstill may still be published. It may not be shorter than eight working days beginning with publication, and section 51(4) forbids entry before it ends. Section 101 provides that if, during a mandatory or voluntary standstill, proceedings under Part 9 are commenced and the authority is notified, the authority may not enter into the contract until the proceedings end or the court lifts the restriction under section 102. A claim notified after the standstill does not trigger that suspension. Procurements started before 24 February 2025 can still follow the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Where every standstill notice is sent electronically or by fax, regulation 87 ends the period at midnight at the end of the 10th day after the relevant sending date. Where every notice is sent by other means, it ends at the earlier of midnight at the end of the 15th day after sending and midnight at the end of the 10th day after the last operator receives it.

United States. A federal solicitation follows the Federal Acquisition Regulation part it names. FAR Part 15 does not impose a mandatory pause before signature. FAR 15.503(b) requires written notice, within three days after award, to each offeror whose proposal was in the competitive range and was not selected. FAR 15.506 requires a post-award debriefing when that offeror asks in writing within three days after receiving the notice. To the maximum extent practicable, the debriefing should occur within five days after the request. It covers the significant weaknesses or deficiencies in the offeror's proposal, the overall evaluated price and technical rating of the successful offeror and of the offeror being debriefed, any ranking the agency developed, a summary of the rationale for award, and reasonable answers on whether the source-selection procedures were followed. FAR 15.506(e) excludes point-by-point comparisons with other proposals, and information that must not be released, including trade secrets and confidential cost data. The debriefing does not revise the proposal. If the agency receives notice of a protest to the Government Accountability Office within ten days after award, or within five days after a debriefing date offered for a debriefing required by FAR 15.505 or 15.506, whichever is later, FAR 33.104(c) requires the contracting officer to suspend performance or terminate the awarded contract, unless the override in that subsection is used. Sealed bidding under FAR Part 14 uses its own notice. The country guides below show where these notices are published.

What should you check before the window closes?

For North Quay, the file is the portal message, the score sheet, and page 14 of the method. The email with a new price stays unsent. Someone who did not write the method reads the comment against that page. A lawyer is instructed only if the company decides the point is worth a review before 14 November. Hale's scores stay with that group.

• Copy the standstill end date, the means of sending, and the channel, with the message or the page.
• Set the award criteria, the weightings, and your scores beside the sentences the letter cites.
• Record a missing summary of reasons, or a missing end date, against what Article 2a requires the communication to contain.
• Leave a revised price, a revised method, and any request to change a mark unsent.
• If a further written request for reasons is still open, use the channel the notice names, and keep the 15 days in Article 55(2) separate from the standstill date.
• Keep another tenderer's information with the people deciding whether to take advice.
• If a review is under consideration, instruct a lawyer in time for the procedure this notice uses.

How does TenderFaro help with this reading?

TenderFaro turns the notice and the procurement documents into structured requirements, including award criteria, weightings, and mandatory conditions, and compares them with the company's certificates, insurance, policies, and project references. An award notification or an assessment summary can be held against those same sources, so a reviewer can open the sentence a score comments on. Each finding keeps its source. TenderFaro does not file a challenge, does not advise whether a score is unlawful, and does not decide that a review should be brought. The people who would instruct a lawyer do. The guide to public tenders follows a competition from notice to award, beside the pieces on what a tender is, on bids that get disqualified, and on how to ask a clarification question before the offer closes.