62.—(1) A utility may authorise or require tenderers to submit variants which meet the minimum requirements laid down by the utility.
(2) A utility must indicate in the procurement documents whether or not they authorise or require variants.
(3) A utility authorising or requiring variants must state in the procurement documents the minimum requirements to be met by the variants and any specific requirements for their presentation, in particular whether variants may be submitted only where the economic operator also submits a tender which is not a variant.
(4) A utility must not take into consideration a variant which—
(a)has not been authorised or required;
(b)is not linked to the subject matter of the contract; or
(c)does not meet the minimum requirements laid down by the utility.
(5) A utility must ensure that the award criteria can be applied to variants meeting those minimum requirements as well as to tenders which are not variants.
(6) In a procedure for awarding a supply contract or service contract, a utility that has authorised or required variants must not reject a variant on the sole ground that it would, where successful, lead to either a service contract rather than a supply contract or a supply contract rather than a service contract.