The €50,000 bar concession fee is a 'deduction', not an add-on: Alice Events' award for Belgium's national day stands
The Council of State rejects Shadow To Live's urgent suspension against the award to Alice Events (€999,953.56 incl. VAT) for the 21 July 2023 national day festivities: the €50,000 bar concession fee prescribed by the specifications must be deducted from the global price, not added to it, so Alice Events remained below the €1,000,000 ceiling.
What happened?
The Chancellery of the Prime Minister launched, at the third attempt after two earlier failures, a public services contract for the organisation of Belgium's national day on 21 July 2023, covering a public show, live television broadcast, security, catering and the operation of the bars. The specifications contained two hard figures: on pain of nullity, the offer had to stay below €1,000,000 incl. VAT, and the tenderer had to include in its global price a flat €50,000 incl. VAT bar concession fee that the contracting authority would collect regardless. Three bidders submitted; Verhulst and Friends was rejected for substantial irregularity, after which negotiations continued with Alice Events and Shadow To Live. The contract was awarded to Alice Events for €999,953.56 incl. VAT. Shadow To Live objected: on its reading, the €50,000 had to be added on top of the service price, meaning Alice Events' true offer was €1,049,953.56 — well above the ceiling — and bidders should therefore have stayed below €950,000 for the services themselves. The contracting authority countered that 'prix global' and 'offre de prix' in the specifications refer to the same concept and that the bar fee is a 'poste en moins' — a negative item deducted from the positive service price to arrive at the global amount. The same correction had been requested of Shadow To Live during negotiations, and she had applied it. The Council sides with the authority: the €50,000 is a deduction because the contractor generates its own revenue from bar sales; the €1,000,000 ceiling refers to what the authority ultimately pays. Both final offers stayed below that ceiling and were treated identically. The plea lacks seriousness; the urgent suspension is rejected.
Why does this matter?
Specifications with mixed price flows — where the contractor is both paid by and pays to the contracting authority — are fertile ground for 'what is the offer price, really?' disputes. This ruling confirms that the Council looks at economic reality: a mandatory concession fee collected by the authority is a negative component of the global price ceiling, not an added cost. For bid managers this means a clause like 'the tenderer shall include the fee in its global price' must systematically be read from the perspective of the payment flow towards the authority. For contracting authorities it shows that consistent treatment during negotiations — here, both bidders were corrected on the exact same point — upholds the award even where the specifications use 'prix global' and 'offre de prix' interchangeably.
The lesson
Whenever a specification imposes a fee the contractor owes the authority (concession, rental, operational royalty), price it in your cost model as a negative component of your global price, unless the specification expressly says otherwise. Before submission, ask the authority in writing whether the ceiling applies before or after deduction of that fee. For contracting authorities: avoid interchangeable use of 'offer amount', 'global price', 'service price' and 'ceiling amount' in the same specification; one clear definition prevents needless urgent suspensions on the eve of execution.
Ask yourself
If I submit an offer with a mandatory fee to the authority baked in: am I certain whether the ceiling applies before or after the deduction of that fee, and do I have that interpretation confirmed in writing?
About this database
The Council of State (Raad van State / Conseil d'État) is Belgium's supreme administrative court. In disputes over public procurement — from contract awards to tenderer exclusions — the Council of State is the final arbiter. The rulings in this database are summarised by TenderWolf in plain language, with practical lessons for tenderers and contracting authorities. View all rulings →