Award criteria and award-related challenges under Spanish public procurement law

The award of public sector contracts (ie both ‘pure’ public contracts and private contracts awarded by contracting authorities and entities, CAE) in Spain is regulated by the Spanish Law on Public Sector Contracts (LPSC) and its implementing regulations. The LPSC sets the rules applicable to all public procurement activities conducted in Spain, both at national and regional level, although some regions have further developed their own procurement regulations on top of the national regime. Given the difficulty in trying to offer a complete, simultaneous review of national and regional rules, this contribution is limited to the rules contained in the LPSC and its implementing regulations — which, in my opinion, generates no significant loss of information, as the system is substantially the same regarding contract award rules and award - related challenges (with the only exception of some ‘regional preference schemes’ in case of ties of offers, which are generally discussed below §3.3).