Case T-524/25: Action brought on 31 July 2025 – equensWorldline v ECB
Date: 2025-07-31
Institutions: General Court
Subjects: award of contract, invitation to tender, maladministration, public procurement, right to an effective remedy, tendering








C_202504906EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/4906


15.9.2025






Action brought on 31 July 2025 – equensWorldline v ECB


(Case T-524/25)

(C/2025/4906)
Language of the case: English

Parties


Applicant: equensWorldline SE Germany (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) (represented by: R. Martens, P. Darras, lawyers)

Defendant: European Central Bank

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:






—


annul, in their entirety, the decision of the Procurement Review Body of the European Central Bank (ECB) of 22 July 2025 rejecting the applicant’s appeal against two ECB award decisions of tender PRO-009494 of 13 June 2025, and two ECB award decisions of tender PRO-009494 of 13 June 2025 (the contested decisions);










—


order the defendant to pay all costs.





Pleas in law and main arguments

In support of the action, the applicant relies on four pleas in law.






1.


First plea in law, alleging a breach of Articles 41, 47, and 51 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and Article 3 of the ECB Procurement Decision, (1) since:






—


the statement of reasons delivered was manifestly inadequate;










—


the ECB failed to state the real reasons for not awarding the contract to Worldline;










—


the award subcriteria were applied in a subjective manner offering the ECB an unrestricted freedom of choice;










—


the ECB mistakenly identified or fabricated apparent issues in Worldline’s tender.














2.


Second plea in law, alleging breach of Article 3 of the ECB Procurement Decision, since the ECB judged two tender bids with significant content overlap responding to two identical technical requirement documents differently.










3.


Third plea in law, alleging a breach of Article 3 and 33 of the ECB Procurement Decision in conjunction with a breach of the principle of sound administration. The ECB wrongfully based its assessment of the award subcriterion 2.1 ‘Quality of the tenderer setup in terms of proposed team structure, proposed team members and organisational structure and capability’ on unsubstantiated speculations regarding Worldline’s pricing. This ECB assessment is clearly in contradiction to the ECB’s decision not to reject the tender, allowing Worldline to continue participating in the procedure, and even to rank Worldline second, thereby enabling Worldline to enter into a contract with the ECB.










4.


Fourth plea in law, alleging a breach of Article 41 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights because, the secretary of the ECB Procurement Review Body had previously actively participated in the negotiations regarding the tender between ECB and Worldline.






(1)  Decision (EU) 2016/245 of the European Central Bank of 9 February 2016 laying down the rules on procurement (OJ 2016 L 45, p. 15).


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/4906/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)