American Cyanamid: You cannot be serious – John McEnroe, quantum physics and public procurement

James Neill and Chris Hoyle provide a commercial litigator’s guide to the suspension of the award of a public contract ‘This article focuses on one distinctive feature of the current public procurement regime, namely the remedy of an automatic suspension to the award of a public contract.’ Separated by only five years, there is a …
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American Cyanamid: Money isn’t everything

Emily Heard weighs up the adequacy of damages and the lifting of the automatic suspension when profit is not the only consideration ‘The circumstances in which damages will be an adequate remedy for non-profit-making suppliers is a key issue on which there appears to be a divergence of judicial opinion.’In the recent High Court procurement …
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Regulation: Calling a halt

Julie Hamilton investigates challenges under the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2012 ‘This is the latest in what is now a significant number of Scottish cases which have affirmed the difficulty a challenging bidder faces in convincing a court to maintain a suspension preventing a contracting authority from entering into a contract following a procurement challenge.’Under …
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Practice: In suspense

John Houlden and Richard Binns report on Edenred ‘The English courts are now perhaps more willing to maintain automatic suspensions than they have been in the past, particularly if there is a swift expedited trial, providing more balance to potential challengers.’The English High Court has stayed another contract award, perhaps indicating an increased willingness to …
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Reform: The wind of change

John Houlden and Brendan Ryan highlight how public authorities might rely on the new EU procurement regime prior to UK transposition ‘The obligation not to compromise a directive’s implementation applies not only to national legislators, but also to national courts as organs of the member states.’A new EU public procurement regime has entered into force …
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Update: Letting it go to waste

Jack Hayward reports on a busy month in procurement practice ‘On 19 September 2013, the Cabinet Office published a government consultation on proposals for making public sector procurement more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).’Just as we go to press the decision in Covanta Energy Ltd v Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority [2013] has been …
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