Bid Rigging and Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU

This paper focuses on research in the area of public procurement and competition law, in particular the problem of bid rigging. Bid rigging has been a competition hindrance for many years, however not quite addressed by public procurement law. Bid rigging being a problem initiated within public procurement processes affecting the competitive efforts of the European internal market. We analyze the introduction of the new Directive 2014/24/EU in public procurement and how the changes in within the Directive will allow for the prevention and dealing with bid rigging during the tendering process. Economic theory and market analysis will be used to understand the incentive for bid rigging to occur. An analysis of how theory and the previous Directive 2004/18/EC has interpreted the cause of bid rigging, allows for a further understanding on the changes to the new Directive 2014/24/EU. This study finds, the efforts within Directive 2014/24/EU to promote competition during the tendering process are evident, thus new changes to procedural rules may have a negative impact in the interpretation of a more transparent process