The High Court in Ireland decision concerning protecting commercially sensitive information during the trial and also assessing abnormally low tenders. Whilst this is a EU Court and under PCR15 it is never the less a useful judgement as the two main areas considered are likely to be applied in a similar way under the UK Procurement Act.
Key messages:
Commercially sensitive information in tender processes needs to be dealt with sensitively (even for Court processes). The Court noted that, where this type of issue arises, it should be addressed at the earliest stage possible in proceedings.
The Court was not required to assess whether the tender was abnormally low, but rather whether SEAI made an obvious error in concluding that it was not abnormally low. This is a useful reminder of the deference afforded to decision makers and experts responsible for tender processes and that Courts will be slow to undertake a subjective analysis of the judgment of decision makers.
In2 the bargain 