CCR: Excluding companies from public procurement procedures based on a criminal investigation, in the absence of a conviction, is unconstitutional.

The Constitutional Court of Romania has decided that the exclusion of an economic operator from a public procurement procedure, solely because it is the subject of a criminal investigation, is unconstitutional.

The judges established that this measure violates the presumption of innocence and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Article 81 paragraph (4) of Law no. 100/2016 was declared unconstitutional because it allowed the automatic elimination of a company from the contract awarding procedure, without a final court ruling. The Court emphasized that a mere suspicion cannot be treated as guilt, thus sanctioning the economic operator before justice has pronounced. It was also highlighted the inequality of treatment between companies in similar situations. The Court reminded that the exclusion of companies without an individual assessment of the circumstances is disproportionate and contravenes European norms, which allow exclusion only in the case of a final conviction. This decision reiterates a similar ruling from 2018, emphasizing that the state cannot exclude companies from public procedures without a clear conviction.