CONSEIL

DE LEUROPE

COUNCIL
OF EUROPE

COUR EUROPENNE DES DROITS DE LHOMME

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
AS TO THE ADMISSIBILITY OF
Application no. 2629/06
by I.T.C. LTD
against Malta
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on
11 December 2007 as a Chamber composed of:
Sir Nicolas BRATZA, President,
Mr J. CASADEVALL,
Mr G. BONELLO,
Mr K. TRAJA,
Mr S. PAVLOVSCHI,
Mr L. GARLICKI,
Ms L. MIJOVI, judges,
and Mr T.L. EARLY, Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 12 January 2006,
Having regard to the decision to apply Article 29 3 of the Convention
and examine the admissibility and merits of the case together.
Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent
Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

THE FACTS
The case originated in an application (no. 2629/06) against the Republic
of Malta lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention)
by a Maltese company, International Trading Corporation Limited (the
applicant company), on 31 October 2006. The applicant company was
represented by Mr I. Refalo and Mr M. Refalo, lawyers practising in
Valletta, Malta. The Maltese Government (the Government) were
represented by their Agent, Mr S. Camilleri, Attorney General.
A. The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as
follows.
1. Background of the case
On 28 December 2003 the Ministry for Youth and the Arts issued a call
for tenders for the design, organisation and management of a quality
national event, on the occasion of the celebration of Maltas accession to the
European Union.
The deadline for submitting bids was January 2004.
Three participants (the applicant company, Welcomeurope Consortium
and Synergix Limited) paid the relevant fees and guarantees and submitted
their bids.
On 3 February 2004 the tender was awarded by the Adjudication Board
to Welcomeurope Consortium.
2. Proceedings before the Public Contracts Appeals Board
On 5 February 2004 the applicant company objected to this decision. On
19 February 2004 a hearing took place before the Public Contracts Appeals
Board (the PCAB).
The applicant company alleged that the bid made by Welcomeurope had
not met the formal requirements of the tender. In particular, its components
had been presented collectively and not individually and it had not been
submitted in an itemised format. Moreover, the bid in question had been
based on incorrect and misleading information. It had made reference to
laser cannons which, according to the applicant, did not exist, and to a TV
transmission deal with the European Broadcasting Union (the EBU),
which was not dependent on the involvement of Welcomeurope. In the
applicants view, as the EBU would have broadcast all the major shows

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

from the ten acceding countries, this matter should not have been taken into
consideration during adjudication. The applicant company further stated that
its bid was better value for money.
Welcomeurope challenged the applicant companys arguments. It
contended that cannon lights would be used in the show. Furthermore, the
EBU had informed them that, due to the presence of an artist who had
signed a contract with Welcomeurope for the exclusive right to use his
services, Malta would have been allotted a longer transmission period.
Representatives from the Adjudication Board gave oral evidence, stating
that both bids had satisfied the formal requirements of the tender and that
the final choice in favour of Welcomeurope had been based on the price and
on the satisfactory standard reached.
The applicant company requested the production of a number of
documents, namely the Adjudication Boards report, minutes of meetings
regarding the bids, letters from Welcomeurope relating to TV coverage,
Welcomeuropes detailed list of equipment and its certificate of insurance
cover. It alleged that these documents were indispensable for allowing it to
substantiate its objections.
Welcomeurope objected to this request, noting that some of the
documents contained commercial information of a highly confidential
nature.
The PCAB observed that it could authorise the production of documents
only in so far as they were relevant to the objections raised and strictly
necessary for giving a ruling on their merits. As a consequence, only a small
extract from the Adjudication Boards report was produced. The chairman
of the Adjudication Board had in fact noted that other parts of the report
might have contained commercial and other information of a confidential
nature.
In a decision of 27 February 2004, the PCAB rejected the applicant
companys claim. It held that the invalidity of Welcomeuropes bid had not
been proved and that there had been no reason to doubt the method used by
the Adjudication Board to assess the bids, which had been based on an
overall assessment and had not been dependent on the amount or type of
lasers used.
3. Proceedings before the Civil Court
On 24 February 2004 the applicant company lodged an application with
the Civil Court (First Hall) in its constitutional jurisdiction. It alleged that
the rejection of its request for the production of documents had infringed its
right to a fair hearing.
By a judgment of 16 December 2004, the Civil Court dismissed the
applicant companys claim on the ground that Article 6 of the Convention
was not applicable to the proceedings before the PCAB.

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

It recalled that this provision only applied to disputes concerning civil

rights and obligations. These rights belonged to private and not to public
law and existed only if they arose from a clearly defined statutory right.
Thus, although a company was entitled not to be discriminated against in
the adjudication procedure, it did not have a civil right to be awarded the
tender. The fact that it carried out commercial activities aimed at earning
profit was not in itself sufficient to bring Article 6 into play.
Moreover, it could not be said that the PCAB was a tribunal within the
meaning of this provision. It was not independent since essential features of
its constitution and of the exercise of its functions depended on the Prime
Minister. Furthermore, its decisions took the form of specific
recommendations, which were final as regards the award of the contract.
They were binding on the Director of Contracts who could not be
considered a body having judicial powers. According to domestic case-law,
a recommendation did not have the same authority as a judgment of a
competent court determining the existence of civil rights and obligations.
4. Proceedings before the Constitutional Court
On 28 December 2004 the applicant company appealed to the
Constitutional Court.
It claimed that according to the case-law of the European Court of
Human Rights, the word tribunal in Article 6 of the Convention had to be
given a wider interpretation, not based on the distinction between quasijudicial and purely administrative bodies. All judicial authorities that
determined a persons complaints affecting his or her rights should be
considered a tribunal. In particular, the dispute submitted to the PCAB
concerned civil rights and obligations. Indeed, the participation in the tender
involved substantial financial and logistical efforts and the award of the
contract would have entailed significant financial benefits for the applicant.
By its very nature, the whole process gave rise to rights and obligations in
respect of any person entering into negotiations to obtain such an award.
The applicant further argued that, having regard to the manner of
appointment of its members and to its procedures, the PCAB resembled
more a court or judicial tribunal than an administrative body.
By a judgment of 12 July 2005, the Constitutional Court rejected the
applicant companys appeal.
It held that Maltese law applicable at the time (the Public Service
(Procurement) Regulations 1996) did not grant any rights in the context of a
public call for tenders. The mere act of submitting a tender did not give the
applicant company the right to have its tender accepted. It was true that the
amount of work involved in submitting a tender and the financial expenses
attached to it carried with it an obligation to act in good faith and with the
diligence of a bonus pater familias throughout the negotiations. However,

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

these obligations only had a pre-contractual nature; they could give rise to a
claim for damages, but not to any right to demand specific performance.
In the present case, the applicant did not request damages but a
reconsideration of the decision. The fact that the result of the proceedings
before the PCAB had economic consequences for the applicant was not
sufficient to conclude that the dispute concerned the determination of a civil
right. The Constitutional Court distinguished the applicant companys case
from the case of Tinnelly & Sons Ltd and Others and McElduff and Others
v. the United Kingdom (see judgment of 10 July 1998, Reports of Judgments
and Decisions 1998-IV). Although that case had dealt with tenders, the right
at issue was the right not to be discriminated against in the job market.
In view of the above, the Constitutional Court concluded that the
proceedings before the PCAB did not involve a determination of civil rights
and obligations. It was therefore irrelevant to establish whether the PCAB
was a tribunal within the meaning of Article 6 of the Convention.
B. Relevant domestic law and practice
1. Judicial Review
Article 469 A (1) of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure (the
COCP), reads as follows:
Save as is otherwise provided by law, the courts of justice of civil jurisdiction may
enquire into the validity of any administrative act or declare such act null, invalid or
without effect only in the following cases:
(a) where the administrative act is in violation of the Constitution;
(b) when the administrative act is ultra vires on any of the following grounds:
(i) when such act emanates from a public authority that is not authorised to perform
it; or
(ii) when a public authority has failed to observe the principles of natural justice or
mandatory procedural requirements in performing the administrative act or in its prior
deliberations thereon; or
iii) when the administrative act constitutes an abuse of the public authoritys power
in that it is done for improper purposes or on the basis of irrelevant considerations; or
iv) when the administrative act is otherwise contrary to law.

2. The Public Service (Procurement) Regulations

Regulation 4.2 of the Public Service (Procurement) Regulations 1996
read as follows:
These regulations do not confer any right on any tenderer, supplier or contractor
beyond those pertaining under civil law.

Regulation 2 of the sixth schedule to the 1996 Regulations required

Contract Committees to:

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

evaluate tenders submitted as well as reports and recommendations made thereon

by the respective departments and public organisations and make definite
recommendations for the award of tenders ensuring that the best value for money at
the lowest possible cost is attained. In this regard, due consideration shall be given to
i. the final cost including financing costs to Government or to the public
organisation, and
ii. the impact of each offer on the recurrent expenditure of Government or the
public organisation;

The 1996 Regulations were amended by Legal Notice 387 of 2003, (the
2003 Regulations). In so far as relevant the 2003 Regulations read as
follows:
Regulation 4
(1) Contracting authorities shall ensure that there is no discrimination between
undertakings, and that all undertakings are treated equally in all calls for tenders
whatever their estimated value.
...
(4) Contracting authorities shall respect fully the confidential nature of any
information furnished by candidates and tenderers.
(5) In the context of provision of technical specifications to interested candidates
and tenderers, the qualifications of candidates and selection of tenderers and the
award of contracts, contracting authorities may impose requirements with a view to
protecting the confidential nature of information which they may wish to make
available.
Regulation 103
(1) Any tenderer who feels aggrieved by a proposed award of a contract and any
person having or having had an interest in obtaining a particular ... contract and who
has been or risks being harmed by an alleged infringement may ... file a notice of
objection with the Department of Contracts or the contracting authority involved as
the case may be.

The functions of the PCAB have not been subject to any relevant
changes in the past amendments and the Ninth Schedule to the 1996
Regulations in so far as relevant read as follows:
(l0) The sessions of the Board during which the complaint is heard shall be held in
public and both the complainant and the interested party shall have the right to attend
and to be accompanied by any person, professional or otherwise, whom they consider
suitable to defend their interests.
(11) The Chairman shall ensure that during the public hearing all interested parties
are given the opportunity to state their cases.
...
(17) All decisions taken by the Board shall be submitted in writing and shall
contain the full facts and reasons on which the Boards final decision is taken. All
decisions shall be concluded with definite recommendations which shall be binding
on the Director of Contracts.

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

(18) Any bidder submitting a complaint who is not satisfied with the final decision
taken by the Board shall have final legal rights to refer the matter to a Court of Law
and to seek any redress or compensation which he considers due to him as a result of
the decision with which he may disagree. Such recourse by any bidder to a Court of
Law shall not deter the Director of Contracts from implementing the Boards final
decision.

COMPLAINT
The applicant complained under Article 6 of the Convention that it had
not been accorded a fair hearing before the PCAB.

THE LAW
The applicant company complained that as a result of the refusal of its
request for the production of a number of documents, the proceedings
before the PCAB had been unfair, contrary to Article 6 1 of the
Convention, which reads as follows:
In the determination of his civil rights and obligations ..., everyone is entitled to a
fair ... hearing ... by [a] ... tribunal...

A. The parties submissions

1. The Government
The Government objected that the applicant had not exhausted the
domestic remedies available to it. The applicant company had lodged its
application with the Civil Court on 24 February 2004, therefore after the
public hearing before the PCAB of 19 February 2004 but before the
PCABs final decision of 27 February 2004 rejecting its appeal. Thus the
constitutional judgments referred solely to the PCABs interlocutory
decision refusing the applicant companys request for the production of the
relevant documents. The Government further submitted that the fact that the
Constitutional Court had ruled against the applicant company on its
Convention claims did not exclude its right to contest the final award of the
contract by judicial review proceedings and to seek the payment of damages
in tort for the alleged illegality of the award.
However, even if it were considered that the applicant company had
exhausted domestic remedies, the Government submitted that Article 6 was
not applicable as by law the PCAB had not been called upon to determine
any civil right or obligation. The decision of the Director of Contracts to
conclude a contract with a particular bidder was an administrative act and

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

the right to appeal such a decision to the PCAB was an internal remedy
provided within the administration.
The issuance of a call for tenders did not give any tenderer any
enforceable civil right against the issuer. This was clear from the Public
Service (Procurement) Regulations in force at the relevant time. The law did
not vest any person with the right to have a tender accepted for the sole
reason that it complied with the required conditions. Moreover, the
Adjudication Board was not bound to ensure that someone was in fact
awarded the contract. It was only required to make recommendations it
deemed appropriate in the exercise of its discretion. The Director could then
proceed with the award of the contract although he was not obliged to do so.
However, if he decided to do so, he was bound to follow the
recommendations of the PCAB. Consequently, even such recommendations
did not vest the complainant with an enforceable civil right. Such a right
would only arise from the contract once it had been concluded and not
during the evaluation stage. This was also the conclusion upheld by both the
Civil Court and the Constitutional Court in the domestic proceedings (see
above).
According to domestic case-law (Roberto Zamboni et Vs Director of
Contracts et, judgment of the Court of Appeal, 31 May 2002) a decision to
award a government contract is an administrative act in terms of
Article 469 A of the COCP. Moreover, the extent to which pre-contractual
liability can arise under Maltese law is still doubtful, as confirmed in Alfred
Attard et Vs Paolo Xuereb et, (judgment of the Civil Court (First Hall),
13 October 2003). The same court later concluded that to claim damages
resulting from pre-contractual liability a plaintiff must prove that the
termination or cessation of negotiations was not justified and that the
conduct of the party who brought the negotiations to an end must be
equivalent to dolus. In those circumstances the damages to be paid should
be limited to expenses actually incurred in the course of or in connection
with negotiations and should not cover loss of profit. Thus, according to the
Government, even if it were to be conceded that pre-contractual liability
arose from the tendering process and that this constituted a civil right, in the
present case no such claim was put forward or could be put forward or
determined by the PCAB.
Finally, the Government, referring to the Courts case law maintained
that the present case differed from that of Benthem v. Netherlands (judgment
of 23 October 1995, Series A no. 97). In the latter case the Royal Decree at
issue was not susceptible to review by a judicial body as required by Article
6 1. In the present case, the final decision to award a public contract was
indeed subject to judicial review, an action which the applicant did not file.

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

2. The applicant
The applicant company submitted that it had exhausted domestic
remedies since the Constitutional Court was the only appropriate remedy. In
fact, the Civil Court, by its rejection of the defendants plea of nonexhaustion of ordinary remedies, had confirmed this.
In respect of the applicability of Article 6, the applicant company
submitted that although the Public Service (Procurement) Regulations did
not provide for any specific rights, they did give a tenderer the right to
object to an award of a public contract and have the objections considered at
a public hearing. These Regulations also obliged the Government to accept
the most economically advantageous tender, which is not necessarily the
lowest. Failure to accept such a tender would, at the very least, leave the
Government liable to be sued for damages. It further submitted that the
subsequent and more detailed 2003 Regulations (which were in turn
replaced), amending the 1996 Regulations were also indicative of the scope
of the rights granted to tenderers.
According to the applicant company, the argument that a body
determining an appeal made in a public tender procedure was a tribunal
determining civil rights and obligations was supported by a number of
considerations: inter alia, the fact that a tenderer incurred a submission fee
and various substantial costs in order to make a bid which had to be
determined in good faith, as also noted in the 2003 Regulations; the fact that
an objection was also subject to a fee, which was paid on the understanding
that the hearing would guarantee respect for all rights concerned; and the
fact that a tenderer who disagreed with a decision of the body could refer
the matter to a court of law and seek redress or compensation if the
authority had acted unfairly.
In the present case the applicant requested the examination of the
Adjudication Boards report in order to determine the occurrence of
unfairness; consequently, any available remedy could only arise as a result
of this determination. Moreover, it was an accepted principle that precontractual damages arose in cases where one of the parties behaved
unfairly during the process of contracting.
B. The Courts assessment
The Court considers that it is not necessary to examine whether the
applicant company has exhausted domestic remedies in respect of its
complaint under Article 6 of the Convention, or whether its subsequent
actions related solely to the PCABs interlocutory decree, as the complaint
that it did not have a fair trial before the PCAB, must in any event be
declared inadmissible for the following reason.

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I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

The Court reiterates that for Article 6 1 in its civil limb to be

applicable, there must be a dispute (contestation in the French text) over a
civil right which can be said, at least on arguable grounds, to be
recognised under domestic law. The dispute must be genuine and serious; it
may relate not only to the actual existence of a right but also to its scope and
the manner of its exercise; and, finally, the result of the proceedings must be
directly decisive for the right in question (see Pudas v. Sweden, judgment of
27 October 1987, Series A no. 125-A, p. 14, 31). The character of the
legislation which governs how the matter is to be determined (civil,
commercial, administrative law, etc.) and that of the authority which is
invested with jurisdiction in the matter (ordinary court, administrative body,
etc.) are therefore of little consequence (see Ringeisen v. Austria, judgment
of 16 July 1971, Series A no. 13, p. 39, 94). Moreover, it is not sufficient
to bring a dispute within the scope of Article 6 to show that it is "pecuniary"
in nature.
Article 6 1 of the Convention is not aimed at creating new substantive
rights without a legal basis in the Contracting State, but at providing
procedural protection of rights already recognised in domestic law (see
W. v. the United Kingdom, judgment of 8 July 1987, Series A no. 121-A,
p. 32-33, 73 and Roche v. the United Kingdom, [GC], no. 32555/96, 117,
ECHR 2005-...). In this connection, in deciding whether a right, civil or
otherwise, could arguably be said to be recognised under Maltese law, the
Court must have regard to the wording of the relevant legal provisions and
to the way those provisions are interpreted by the domestic courts (see
Masson and van Zon v. the Netherlands, judgment of 28 September 1995,
Series A no. 327, p. 19, 49 and Roche, cited above, 120). This Court
would need strong reasons to differ from the conclusions reached by the
national superior courts on a question of interpretation of domestic law and
by finding, contrary to their view, that there was arguably a right recognised
by domestic law (ibid).
In respect of the wording of the relevant law, the Court notes that the
Public Service (Procurement) Regulations, particularly regulation 4.2 stated
that these regulations did not confer any right on any tenderer, supplier or
contractor beyond those pertaining under civil law and clause 4.11 of the
call for tenders stated that the Government was not obliged to accept the
lowest or any other tender submitted and was not obliged to give reasons
for so doing. Although these regulations obliged the contracting committee
to recommend tenders which ensured the best value for money at the lowest
possible cost, this did not mean that the least expensive had to be chosen (as
was not disputed by the applicant company in its observations). Thus, the
mere fact that a legal person submitted a bid or made an offer could not give
rise to an expectation, even less so a right, to be awarded the tender, or to
have it determined by any particular method (see, mutatis mutandis, Jan De
Nul (S.A.) Ondernemingen v. Belgium (dec.), no. 20907/92, 2 March 1994).

I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

11

As to the way in which those provisions were interpreted by the domestic

courts, the Court notes that according to the case-law referred to by the
Government, a decision to award a government contract has been held to be
an administrative act. It further notes that in the present case both the Civil
Court and the Constitutional Court concluded that the relevant legal
provisions did not grant any civil rights in the context of a public call for
tenders.
Thus, upon analysis of the relevant provisions and their interpretation,
the Court is of the view that during the evaluation stage of the tender in
question, the applicant company could not at any point expect to be a holder
of a civil right.
The fact that, as claimed by the applicant company, a tenderer had the
right to object to an award and to have the objections considered at a public
hearing, did not amount to a civil right, but merely to a right of a public
nature. Indeed a right to object to an award does not suffice to make
Article 6 applicable to proceedings determining the award of a tender, in
view of the Adjudication Boards discretion to decide who should be
granted the tender (see, mutatis mutandis, Skyradio and others v.
Switzerland, (dec.) no. 46841/99, 31 August 2004). The present case is
different from Ara v. Turkey, (no. 69037/01, 21 September 2006) in which
the exclusion of the applicant from the tendering process had been due to
his political opinions and where the decision excluded him not only from
the tender at issue but from any future tendering processes. The decision
thus entailed very significant economic consequences for him. The fact that
in the present case the applicant company had already incurred financial
expenses in order to take part in the bid and that the decision could have had
some economic consequences for it, did not suffice to create a civil right.
Indeed proceedings do not become civil merely because they also raise an
economic issue (see, mutatis mutandis, Pierre-Bloch v. France, judgment of
21 October 1997, Reports 1997-VI, p. 2206, at p. 2225, 51). Moreover, the
Court points out that, as confirmed by the remedies it chose to pursue, the
applicant companys action was directed at demanding specific performance
and not to obtaining compensation. The fact that the contested decision
could have possibly given rise to damages resulting from pre-contractual
liability does not alter the above finding.
Consequently, in the absence of a civil right, Article 6 is not applicable to
the present tendering process and the determination made by the PCAB.
In view of this conclusion it is not necessary for the Court to determine
whether the PCAB is a tribunal in terms of Article 6 of the Convention.
For the above reasons the Court finds that this complaint is incompatible
ratione materiae with the provisions of the Convention and must be rejected
under Article 35 3 and 4 of the Convention.

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I.T.C. LTD v. MALTA DECISION

In view of the above, it is appropriate to discontinue the application of

Article 29 3 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court by a majority
Declares the application inadmissible.

T.L. EARLY
Registrar

Nicolas BRATZA
President