Management of motor vehicle taxes, direct award is unlawful

No to the regional resolutions providing for a direct award, without competition, of a service contract for the management of the regional car tax archive to a non-economic public entity managing the public register at national level, if the conditions laid down in Directive 2014/25 on the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sectors are not met. This was established by the Court of Justice of the European Union in an order rendered in Case C-316/25, on a preliminary reference by the Council of State.

At the centre of the case was the dispute between the Umbrian Regional Government and a company that had objected to the region's direct entrusting to the Aci of the support service for the management of car taxes. The company had challenged the resolution before the Regional Administrative Court for Umbria, which upheld the appeal and annulled the resolutions. The region had appealed to the Council of State, which, before deciding, suspended the proceedings and posed a preliminary question of interpretation to the European judges.

The EU Court started by examining Article 12(4), which excludes from the scope of the directive (thus allowing direct award) public contracts concluded exclusively between two or more contracting authorities which ensure that the public services which they are required to perform, 'are provided with a view to achieving the objectives they have in common' and only in cases where there is cooperation between the two authorities 'governed exclusively by considerations relating to the public interest'.

Cooperation between contracting authorities, the Court observes, is an indispensable element which is not fulfilled 'when the sole contribution of certain contractors is limited to a mere reimbursement of costs incurred by another of the contractors'. According to the Euro-Judges, it follows from the reference for a preliminary ruling that there is no effective cooperation between the Umbria Region and ACI with regard to the management of the regional archives of the car tax and of the national motor vehicle archives since the agreement relating to the main proceedings 'concerns only the acquisition of a service in return for payment of a fee'. Thus, as Article 12 only allows the exclusion from the procurement rules in cases where the contract is concluded betweentwo contracting authorities cooperating in the provision of public services and where there are public interest considerations, in the absence of the element of cooperation, the exclusion from the procurement rules cannot be allowed. On the other hand, the Euro-Judges point out, the conditions for the application of Article 12 are cumulative: in the absence of one condition, 'the direct award, without competition, of the contract for services relating to the management of the regional archive of motor vehicle tax' is not permitted.