INDUSTRIES, PROJECT FINANCE | Project finance under discussion at the Regional Administrative Court of Milan

On 11 March 2025, the Administrative Court of Lombardy issued its judgement in case RG 2330/2024 related to Project finance. In ruling on the legitimacy of an exclusion measure relating to a concession award procedure by virtue of project finance, the Court introduces important case law principles.

First of all, the Regional Administrative Court assumes that the technical-economic feasibility project does not have to be absolutely detailed; on the contrary, the judges allow for the implementation and completion of the act through the preparation of the executive project. It therefore appears to be at the discretion of the contracting authority whether to draft a tendering procedure which allows participants greater leeway when preparing their bid, especially if the procedure is based on a technical and economic feasibility study that is then transferred to the final design.

Another important part of the judgment regards the complaints presented against the special tender law, a measure which, according to the plaintiff, contains excessively selective provisions based on automatic mathematical formulas for the attribution of points. In this case as well, the judges reaffirm the wide discretion of the administration in identifying the requirements for participation and the selection of bids.

Newsletter n. 106 – April 2025