The court listed the reasons why the enlarged public procurement led to the restriction of competition
The customer announced the purchase of works on the maintenance of roads. The work had to be carried out at 54 sites in 17 administrative districts. The Supervisory authority decided that the consolidation of the lot led to an unjustified restriction of participants. The customer had to divide the purchase into several lots and re-hold the auction.
The courts of first instance and appeal considered that the Antimonopoly authority did not justify the conclusion, and reversed its decision. In their opinion, the Law N 44-FZ does not establish restrictions on the volume of the lot and allows the customer to form a purchase based on their needs.
The district court disagreed. Combining in one lot of works at various facilities in different regions of the region limits the number of participants in the procurement for the following reasons:
the merger resulted in a significant increase in the initial maximum contract price;
bidders who have labor and other resources, but do not have the financial capacity to make almost simultaneously securing the application and securing the execution of the contract on a large scale, could not enter the auction;
to perform work on 54 sites that are not part of a single road, have different climatic conditions, it is necessary to use additional material, labor and financial resources;
the customer has not proved that there are no organizations that could perform work in one or more adjacent areas.
The Supreme court did not review the case.
Document: Determination of the Supreme court of the Russian Federation of 23.09.2019 N 303-ES19-15756