Case C-454/06: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 19 June 2008 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesvergabeamt, Austria) — pressetext Nachrichtenagentur GmbH v Republik Österreich (Bund), APA-OTS Originaltext — Service GmbH, APA Austria Presse Agentur registrierte Genossenschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (Public procurement — Directive 92/50/EEC — Procedures for the award of public service contracts — Concept of award of a contract )
Date: 2008-06-19
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: administrative transparency, award of contract, contract, exclusive distribution agreement, interpretation of the law, invitation to tender, provision of services, services contract

C 209/8

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

15.8.2008

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 19 June 2008
(reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundes-
vergabeamt, Austria) — pressetext Nachrichtenagentur
(Bund), APA-OTS
GmbH v Republik Österreich
Originaltext — Service GmbH, APA Austria Presse
registrierte Genossenschaft mit beschränkter
Agentur

Haftung

(Case C-454/06) (1)

(Public procurement — Directive 92/50/EEC — Procedures for
the award of public service contracts — Concept of ‘award of
a contract’)

(2008/C 209/10)

Language of the case: German

Referring court

Bundesvergabeamt, Austria

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: pressetext Nachrichtenagentur GmbH

services

coordination of procedures for the award of public service contracts,
must be interpreted as not covering a situation, such as that in the
main proceedings, where
contracting
authority by the initial service provider are transferred to another
service provider established as a limited liability company, the sole
shareholder of which is the initial service provider, controlling the
new service provider and giving it instructions, provided that the
initial service provider continues to assume responsibility for compli-
ance with the contractual obligations.

supplied to the

the initial agreement

2. The terms ‘awarding’ and ‘awarded’, used in Articles 3(1) and 8
and 9 of Directive 92/50, must be interpreted as not covering an
to accommodate changed
adjustment of
external circumstances, such as the conversion to euros of prices
initially expressed in national currency, the minimal reduction in
the prices in order to round them off, and the reference to a new
price index where provision was made in the initial agreement to
replace the price index fixed previously.

3. The terms ‘awarding’ and ‘awarded’, used Articles 3(1), 8 and 9 of
Directive 92/50, must be interpreted as not covering a situation
such as that at issue in the main proceedings, where a contracting
authority, through the use of a supplemental agreement, agrees
with the contractor, during the period of validity of a contract
concluded with it for an indefinite period, to renew for a period of
three years a waiver of the right to terminate the contract by notice,
the waiver no longer being in force at the time of the amendment,
and agrees with it to lay down higher rebates than those initially
provided for in respect of certain volume-related prices within a
specified area of supply.

Defendants: Republik Österreich (Bund), APA-OTS Originaltext
— Service GmbH, APA Austria Presse Agentur
registrierte
Genossenschaft mit beschränkter Haftung

(1) OJ C 326, 30.12.2006.

Re:

Reference for a preliminary ruling — Bundesvergabeamt —
Interpretation of Article 82 EC, of Article 3(1), Articles 8 and 9
and Article 11(3)(b) of Council Directive 92/50/EEC of 18 June
1992 relating to the coordination of procedures for the award
of public service contracts (OJ 1992 L 209, p. 1), of Article 1(3)
and Article 2(1)(c) of Council Directive 89/665/EEC of
21 December 1989 on the coordination of the laws, regulations
and administrative provisions relating to the application of
review procedures to the award of public supply and public
works contracts (OJ 1989 L 395, p. 33) and of general princi-
ples of Community law — Contract for services of indefinite
duration concluded on behalf of the State with a press agency,
regarded as the sole national press agency, outside the proce-
dures for awarding public contracts — Transfer, with the
consent of the contracting authority, of performance of various
parts of the contract to a company entirely controlled by the
service provider, and other contract amendments concerning
waiver of the right to termination of the contract by contracting
authority, payment for the services provided and the rebate
granted to the contracting authority — Whether those subse-
quent amendments are to be classified as a new ‘contract award’
necessitating prior publication of a contract notice

Judgment of the Court (Fourth Chamber) of 12 June 2008
(reference for a preliminary ruling from the Regerings-
rätten, Sweden) — Skatteverket v Gourmet Classic Ltd

(Case C-458/06) (1)

(Jurisdiction of the Court — Directive 92/83/EEC — Harmo-
nisation of the structures of excise duties on alcohol and alco-
holic beverages — Article 20,
indent — Alcohol
contained in cooking wine — Exemption from the harmonised
duty)

first

(2008/C 209/11)

Language of the case: Swedish

Operative part of the judgment

Referring court

1. The terms ‘awarding’ and ‘awarded’, used in Articles 3(1), 8 and 9
of Council Directive 92/50/EEC of 18 June 1992 relating to the

Regeringsrätten