The French company EDF failed in its lawsuit against the Office for the Protection of Competition regarding the outcome of the tender for the construction of two new nuclear power units in Dukovany. The Brno Regional Court did not hear its arguments.

The Senate of the Brno Court, headed by Jan Čížek, did not decide on the terms of the tender itself, as the bidders competed outside the regular tender procedure on the basis of a safety exception.

The dispute therefore concerned whether the Office should have responded to the objections of the unsuccessful bidder, or whether it had correctly decided not to proceed with the review. The court ultimately ruled in favor of the antimonopoly office, stating that it had acted correctly under the safety exception.

The contract itself was signed at the beginning of June. Although the Brno Regional Court issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the signing of the contract with the winner of the tender in connection with the lawsuit at the beginning of May, the Supreme Administrative Court annulled it. KHNP will thus build its first reactors in Europe in the Czech Republic.

The Antimonopoly Office has been dealing with the contract for several months, and both unsuccessful bidders, the French EDF and the American Westinghouse, filed objections to the selection of a competing company in the competition. They questioned the Korean company's authorization to use the offered technology and the transparency of the management.

The French company specifically stated that the regulation on foreign subsidies had been violated, and both companies also described the contracting authority's actions as illegal, which, according to them, had not complied with the basic principles of public procurement, especially in connection with the selection of the preferred supplier. The Office rejected the objections, and on April 24, the head of the office, Petr Mlsna, also rejected EDF's dismissal, while Westinghouse withdrew his dismissal.

The construction of new nuclear units in the Czech Republic should be the largest domestic contract. The costs of the currently preferred construction of two reactors in Dukovany at current prices are 407 billion crowns.

Source: Novinky
Prepared by the team of foreign office CzechTrade South Korea (Seoul)