HPP successfully represented Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority (HSY) in the Market Court and the Supreme Administrative Court in litigation concerning the public procurement process relating to the Ämmässuo biogas plant. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in its decision (KHO 2013: 123), published in its yearbook, that the contracting entity in question was exempted from the obligation to apply procurement procedures to the contract, the Act coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services sector (Utilities Act)did not apply to the contract in question (neither did the Act on Public Contracts) and, accordingly, the procurement process was excluded in its entirety from the ambit of the obligation to apply procurement procedures to awarding the contract.
The case was significant in that it was the first time in Finland that the principles of interpretation relating to contracts covering several activities under Section 10 of the Act coordinating the procurement procedures of entities operating in the water, energy, transport and postal services (Utilities Act) were applied to a CHP plant contract. It was also the first time in Finland that the provisions of the Commission decision of 19 June 2006 establishing an exemption from the obligation to apply procurement procedures to contracts which are intended to enable the contracting entities to carry out electricity generation or the sale of electricity were applied.
HSY was assisted by partner Tuomas Saraste and senior associate Timo Ukkonen of HPP’s public procurement practice.
