Communicated on 25 May 2020 Published on 22 June 2020

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 7567/19 MARINA AUCANADA GROUP S.L . against Spain lodged on 28 January 2019

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the lack of summoning of the applicant company in the framework of administrative judicial proceedings concerning a public tender.

In February 2015, the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands ( Autoridad Portuaria de las Islas Baleares ) announced a public tender for the management of moorings in the dock of the old Port of Alcudia (Mallorca). The applicant submitted a tender, along with other three interested parties . In April 2015 the Town Council of Alcudia lodged administrative judicial proceedings with the High Court of the Balearic Islands against the decision to hold the public tender. The Port Authority published in the Official Gazette of the Province [1] a public notice communicating the existence of the proceedings and summoning any interested parties to take part in them. None of the tenderers was personally served. During the judicial proceedings, which did not interrupt the public tender, the applicant company was not personally served either, even though during the tender proceedings its offer was considered the most advantageous one. The applicant only became aware of the proceedings through the media a few months later. The decision to hold the public tender was deemed void, without having given the applicant the opportunity to take part in the judicial proceedings as an interested party .

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Did the applicant company have effective access to a court as guaranteed in Article 6 § 1 of the Convention having regard to the failure to summon the applicant in the administrative judicial proceedings concerning the annulment of the decision announcing the public tender (see Dilipak and Karakaya v. Turkey , nos. 7942/05 and 24838/05, 4 March 2014, and Aparicio Navarro Reverter and García San Miguel y Orueta v. Spain , no. 39433/11, 10 January 2017)?

[1] Relying on Article 49 of Law 29/1998, regulating the Administrative Jurisdiction, and Article 59 of Law 30/1992, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and Common Administrative Procedure,