PurpLE Project

The Purchase Power – Sustainable Public Procurement through Private Law Enforcement (PurpLE) Project explores the connection between public procurement law and commercial contract law within Europe. These two areas of law interact differently depending on how each country chooses to regulate them.

In general, there are two main approaches, often referred to as the “public” and “private” models.

• In the public model, administrative law plays the leading role, while commercial contract law steps in only where public law doesn’t cover certain aspects of the contract.
• In the private model, public contracts are treated more like private ones, and commercial contract law takes centre stage.

Whenever commercial contract law applies to public contracts, interesting questions arise. For example, does the law apply directly, or does it need to be modified to suit the specific nature of public contracts? One area where this is particularly interesting is already during the formation of public contracts, such as dealing with issues of “culpa in contrahendo” (which means pre-contractual liability).

The PurpLE Project predominantly but not exclusively focuses on the performance of public contracts and looks at topics like:

• How commercial contract law applies to public contracts.
• The responsibilities of public buyers when contracts need to be changed.
• Risk-sharing between parties and how public contracts can be terminated.
• The recent case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on contract modifications.
• How concepts like “diligent authority” impact public contract performance.
• The conditions under which a public contract can be changed due to unforeseen hardships.

The project also explores sustainable and innovative procurement practices, focusing on:

• Innovation: How computational contracts (smart contracts) are being used in public procurement.
• Sustainability: How due diligence clauses are enforced in public and private contracts, and whether third parties can enforce sustainability clauses.

Additionally, the project looks into the role of arbitration in public contract disputes, investigating whether arbitration can be used effectively in both the public and private models of public procurement.

The PurpLE Project brings together experts in public procurement and commercial contract law from several EU countries, making it a unique initiative. The findings will be valuable for both academia and legal professionals.

The project’s results are shared through seminars, conferences, academic publications, open-access blogs, and podcast episodes on the BEstek Public Procurement Podcast. In addition, a collaborative anthology will be published as open access by the end of 2025.