INDUSTRIES, PUBLIC PROCUREMENT | The Council of State on Automatic Exclusion and Evidentiary Value of the FVOE Certificate

On 9 April 2026, the Administrative Court of Second Instance (Council of State) issued judgment No. 2844 regarding the exclusion of a bidder from a public procurement procedure. In this decision, the Court clarified an important principle on automatic exclusion under Article 94 of the Italian Public Contracts Code. It held that the information contained in the FVOE certificate (the “Virtual File of the Economic Operator”) constitutes reliable and legally binding evidence of the bidder’s compliance with tax and social security obligations, unless it is formally challenged through a specific legal action for forgery.

As a result, contracting authorities must rely on the data included in the FVOE and are not required to carry out additional checks beyond those provided by law. At the same time, economic operators are responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information contained in the FVOE and, if necessary, for formally contesting any incorrect data.

Newsletter n. 117 – April 2026