Article 77
United Kingdom
Contracts shall be awarded in one of the following two ways:
under the automatic award procedure, in which case the contract is awarded to the tender which, while being in order and satisfying the conditions laid down, quotes the lowest price;
under the best-value-for-money procedure.
The tender offering the best value for money shall be the one with the best price-quality ratio, taking into account criteria justified by the subject of the contract such as the price quoted, technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, environmental characteristics, running costs, profitability, completion or delivery times, after-sales service and technical assistance.
The contracting authority shall specify, in the contract notice or in the specifications, the weighting it will apply to each of the criteria for determining best value for money.
The weighting applied to price in relation to the other criteria shall not result in the neutralisation of price in the choice of contractor.
If, in exceptional cases, weighting is technically impossible, particularly on account of the subject of the contract, the contracting authority shall merely specify the decreasing order of importance in which the criteria are to be applied.