On 6 January 2026, the Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) started a public consultation regarding draft guidance on the application of the competition rules to public procurement (see attachments). The draft guidance is designed to help public procurement managers prevent anticompetitive conduct from happening and identify any such behaviour if the preventive measures fail. Once finalised, the guidance will form an update of a version which the BCA published in 2017 (here and here).

According to the BCA, the economic stakes are high: in 2024 more than 20,000 public tenders worth in excess of EUR 85 billion were published in Belgium.

For a long time, the sector has been a competition enforcement priority (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 30 April 2025) and recently gave rise to significant enforcement decisions with regard to private security and fire protection services (see, VBB Belgian Antitrust Watch of 4 July 2024 and of 9 July 2024). In healthcare, the public procurement rules have been paired with sector-specific regulation to bolster the competitive position of biosimilar medicines for biological molecules that are no longer protected by patent rights.

The draft guidance focuses on bid rigging, the abuse of dominance, and specific conduct of the public procurement manager.

Bid rigging – This form of anticompetitive behaviour is in public tender procedures the most common and manifests itself in a variety of practices such as the allocation of customers, territories, allotments or types of assignments and the submission of cover bids to create a false impression of competition. Significantly, this is the rare type of competition law infringement which in Belgium also carries criminal penalties.

Abuse of dominance – This conduct occurs more rarely, is often difficult to prove, and may take the form of both predatory and excessive pricing.

Conduct of the public procurement manager – The public procurement manager has the responsibility to ensure the equal treatment of all the bidders, avoid conflicts of interest, and stay away from outright corruption.

The draft guidance extensively details best practices for public procurement managers to reinforce competition and innovation across the entire procedure from the planning phase, over the conceptualisation and description of the assignment and the choice of tendering procedure, to its implementation, including the review and assessment of the bids. The public procurement managers are also encouraged to be vigilant for specific red flags that may point to anticompetitive behaviour.

The draft guidance contains the interesting recommendation for public procurement managers to maintain a correct balance between transparency and confidentiality. For example, transparency is key in the preparatory phase of a public tender to ensure maximum interest in the procedure and create a level playing field among potential participants.

Conversely, it is crucial for public procurement managers to protect business secrets at all times and to exercise restraint in divulging pricing information at the end of the procedure by, for example, relying on price ranges or other proxies rather than exact prices.

The draft guidance concludes by explaining what should be done if there are suspicions of anticompetitive behaviour and how damages can be obtained to compensate for established competition law violations.

Stakeholders are requested to submit their comments by 28 February 2026.