What is the Principle of Equal Treatment?
The principle of equal treatment requires all participants in a procurement procedure to participate under the same conditions and be treated equally.
Legal Basis
- § 97(2) GWB: Participants must be treated equally unless unequal treatment is expressly required or permitted by law
- Art. 18(1) Directive 2014/24/EU: EU-level equal treatment
- Art. 3 Basic Law: Constitutional equality principle
Core Aspects
Equal information: All bidders receive the same documents, questions/answers are shared with all, changes reach all simultaneously.
Equal deadlines: Identical submission deadlines, no individual extensions.
Equal requirements: Suitability criteria apply uniformly, award criteria are consistently applied.
Equal evaluation: Pre-established criteria applied identically, no discretion favoring individual bidders.
Typical Violations
Advance hints to one bidder, individual deadline extensions, product-specific specifications, selective document requests, and biased evaluation.
Practical Tip
Equal treatment violations are common grounds for review applications. Patterno ensures you never miss a tender and receive all information timely for equal competitive opportunities.