The EU Court of Justice clarifies to what extent related undertakings may submit separate bids in the same tendering procedure (Lloyd’s)

This preliminary ruling relates to a tendering procedure launched by an Italian public authority, Arpacal, for the award for a public service contract for insurance. Two Lloyd’s ‘syndicates’ participated in the call for tenders. Their tenders were both signed by an agent of Lloyd’s General Representative for Italy. However, Arpacal excluded those syndicates from the tender due to the fact that the submissions were signed by the same person. It considered that a single decision-making centre would infringe the principles of confidentiality of tenders, equal treatment, fair and free competition, protected under EU law by Articles 49 and 56 TFEU and Directive 2004/18 on public procurement procedures (“Public Procurement Directive”). Lloyd’s argued, however, that those principles were