New finding by the Ghent Court of Appeal on agricultural land

The Ghent Court of Appeal has just held that the sale of 79 plots of agricultural land by the Ghent public social welfare centre (CPAS) was contrary to the principle of equality, in so far as this sale — based on the "price" criterion — was conditional on acquiring the 79 plots as a single lot. The Court finds that, in doing so, the CPAS restricted competition by preventing smaller candidate purchasers from submitting offers, and that this sale as a single lot reduces the price that the CPAS could have hoped to obtain from the sale. The Court considers that there is potentially State aid in favour of the purchaser of these plots, since it benefited from public land on advantageous and selective terms. The Court has therefore referred the matter to the European Commission to ask for its opinion on this question. Failure to comply with the principles of equality, transparency and non-discrimination in public contracts is thus recalled by the Ghent Court of Appeal, which considers that this may indirectly give rise to unlawful State aid in favour of the favoured undertaking.