Installation of moorings on the Cap Ferret peninsula: a mixed victory for the rejected candidate in 2022

The administrative court considers that BT Mouillages' offer was distorted by the town hall but that this does not justify the cancellation of the call for tenders.

In November 2022, the City of Lège-Cap-Ferret launched a call for tenders for the supply, installation, monitoring, maintenance, removal, and storage of the 2,800 moorings across three different lots. It ultimately selected the companies FJ Marine, TGM, and Offshore Services, ousting BT Mouillages, owned by the Téchoueyre family, which had been operating for nineteen years. The latter contested the regularity of the call for tenders and, after being dismissed in summary proceedings in early 2023, challenged it on the merits before the administrative court.

On three angles: the validity of the offer submitted by FJ Marine (which obtained lot no. 1 in its place), the imprecision of the scoring method and the failure to comply with the principle of equal treatment, and finally the distortion of its own offer, the City indicating in the proceedings that BT Mouillages had not proposed any environmental protection measures. After fourteen months of investigation, the court delivered its judgment on July ¹ .

He acknowledges that the offer from the mooring contractor was misrepresented, as BT Mouillages had indicated in its application an environmental measure: cleaning the moorings without water, electricity or high-pressure equipment. "This misrepresentation [...] is not of such seriousness that it requires the cancellation or termination of the contracts in question," the judgment reads. Especially since the other two requests were rejected.

The court, on the basis of two articles of the tender regulations, considered that FJ Marine's offer was "admissible". Subsequently, "the criterion relating to technical value appears sufficiently precise with regard to the subject of the contract for an informed professional to be able to easily determine the expected content of this document without creating a breach of equality between the candidates or disregarding the principle of transparency of procedures".

For the distortion of the offer, the municipality was ordered to reimburse BT Mouillages for the costs incurred in submitting its offer (€679.29) as well as €1,500 for court costs. Both parties expressed satisfaction the day after the judgment, with the Téchoueyre couple declaring the "municipal irregularity recognized" and Mayor Philippe de Gonneville declaring the "overall validity of a call for tenders not called into question." Pascal and Virginie Téchoueyre will appeal the judgment of July ¹ .