1.The arrangements for the submission of tenders and requests to participate shall be determined by the contracting authority, which may choose an exclusive method of submission. Tenders and requests to participate may be submitted by letter or by electronic means. Requests to participate may also be submitted by fax.
The means of communication chosen shall be generally available and shall not restrict the access of economic operators to the procurement procedure.
The means of communication chosen shall be such as to ensure that the following conditions are satisfied:
(a)each submission contains all the information required for its evaluation;
(b)the integrity of data is preserved;
(c)the confidentiality of tenders and requests to participate is preserved and the contracting authorities examine the content of tenders and requests to participate only after the time limit set for submitting them has expired;
(d)the protection of personal data in accordance with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001.
Where necessary for the purposes of legal proof, the contracting authorities may decide that requests to participate submitted by fax must be confirmed by letter or electronically as soon as possible and at all events before the final date set in Articles 152.
2.Where the contracting authority authorises submission of tenders and requests to participate by electronic means, the tools used and their technical characteristics shall be non-discriminatory in nature, generally available and interoperable with the information and communication technology products in general use and shall not restrict economic operators’ access to the procurement procedure.
3.Except for contracts below the threshold laid down in Article 170(1), devices for the electronic receipt of tenders and requests to participate shall guarantee, through technical means and appropriate procedures, that:
(a)the economic operator can be authenticated with certainty;
(b)the exact time and date of the receipt of tenders and requests to participate can be determined precisely;
(c)it may be reasonably ensured that, before the time limits laid down, no-one can have access to data transmitted under these requirements;
(d)where that access prohibition is infringed, it may be reasonably ensured that the infringement is clearly detectable;
(e)only authorised persons may set or change the dates for opening data received;
(f)during the different stages of the procurement procedure access to all data submitted, or to part thereof, must be possible only through simultaneous action by authorised persons;
(g)simultaneous action by authorised persons must give access to data transmitted only after the prescribed date;
(h)data received and opened in accordance with these requirements must remain accessible only to persons authorised to acquaint themselves therewith.
4.Where the contracting authority authorises submission of tenders and requests to participate by electronic means, the electronic documents submitted by means of such systems shall be deemed to be the originals and to be signed by an authorised representative of the economic operator.
5.Where submission is by letter, tenderers or candidates may choose to submit tenders or requests to participate:
(a)either by post or by courier service, in which case the call for tenders shall specify that the evidence shall be constituted by the date of dispatch, the postmark or the date of the deposit slip;
(b)by hand-delivery to the premises of the institution by the tenderer or candidate in person or by an agent; for which purposes the call for tenders shall specify, in addition to the information referred to in Article 138(2)(a), the department to which tenders or requests to participate are to be delivered against a signed and dated receipt.
6.In order to maintain secrecy and to avoid any difficulties where tenders are sent by letter, the invitation to tender must include the following provision:
Tenders must be submitted in a sealed envelope itself enclosed within a second sealed envelope. The inner envelope must bear, in addition to the name of the department to which it is addressed, as indicated in the invitation to tender, the words ‘Invitation to tender — Not to be opened by the mail service’. If self-adhesive envelopes are used, they must be sealed with adhesive tape and the sender must sign across that tape.