Regulation 39. Equal treatment, transparency and proportionality

(1) Contracting authorities shall treat economic operators equally and without discrimination and shall act in a transparent and proportionate manner.

(2) The tenderer must be selected in a transparent manner and according to a prescribed procedure.

(3) The design of the procurement shall not be made with the intention of excluding it from the scope of these regulations or of artificially narrowing competition. Competition shall be considered to be artificially narrowed where the design of the procurement is made with the intention of unduly favouring or disadvantaging certain economic operators.

(4) In so far as they are covered by Annexes 1, 2, 4 and 5 and the General Notes to the European Union’s Appendix I to the GPA and by the other international agreements by which the Union is bound, contracting authorities shall accord to the works, supplies, services and economic operators of the signatories to those agreements treatment no less favourable than the treatment accorded to the works, supplies, services and economic operators of the Union.