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Sammanfattning

Public procurement legislation aims to ensure competition and cost-efficiency by awarding contracts to the best bidders. Bidders must meet certain qualification requirements, such as financial and technical capacity. However, some subsidiaries often struggle to meet these requirements, leading to the use of support letters — typically issued by the parent company within the group — to demonstrate financial strength or expertise. While this practice helps subsidiaries qualify, it introduces uncertainty, as support letters are not always legally binding guarantees. This can result in more qualified companies being excluded, while less qualified ones remain in the process on deceptive grounds. The responsibility of the issuer of the support letter also raises questions, particularly regarding how liability should be assessed under procurement rules in a potential bankruptcy. This practice, which often involves parent companies issuing such letters, seems to be an industry norm, with reasons for this explored further.