Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012 - American Chamber of ...

Doing Business in the Netherlands 2012
The European Commission is currently reviewing the Directives and
has indicated it will publish proposals for a legislative update at the
end of 2011 or the start of 2012.
On 19 February 2010, the Dutch implementation of Directive
2007/66/EC entered into force. The Directive has been implemented
in a separate act (the “WIRA”) and deals among others with
motivation requirements for contracting authorities and possibilities
for market parties to claim cancellation of awarded contracts.
A draft version of a new Dutch Public Procurement Act has been
presented to the Dutch parliament in the summer of 2010. This Act
will incorporate the different pieces of procurement legislation into
one. The new Act has faced delays in Parliament, however, and has
not yet reached a vote. The entry into force is expected to be delayed
until at least the second quarter of 2012. Depending on the outcome
of the European Commission’s review of the procurement Directives,
this process may be delayed even further.
10.3.1 Main Principles
Dutch public procurement law is based on four main principles:
� adequate advertising by contracting authorities when
procuring public contracts exceeding certain threshold values;
� banning the use of technical specifications favoring or
eliminating certain undertakings;
� applying objective criteria for the participation in – and the
award of – public contracts; and
� general principles of good administration.
The first three principles are corollary to the general principles of
procurement law, such as non-discrimination, objectivity and
transparency. On the basis of Dutch and EC case law, contracting
authorities always have to comply with the general principles of good
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