Directive 2014/25/EU of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 4 Contracting entities

1. For the purpose of this Directive contracting entities are entities, which:

(a) are contracting authorities or public undertakings and which pursue one of the activities referred to in Articles 8 to 14;

(b) when they are not contracting authorities or public undertakings, have as one of their activities any of the activities referred to in Articles 8 to 14, or any combination thereof and operate on the basis of special or exclusive rights granted by a competent authority of a Member State.

2. ‘Public undertaking’ means any undertaking over which the contracting authorities may exercise directly or indirectly a dominant influence by virtue of their ownership of it, their financial participation therein, or the rules which govern it.

A dominant influence on the part of the contracting authorities shall be presumed in any of the following cases in which those authorities, directly or indirectly:

(a) hold the majority of the undertaking’s subscribed capital;

(b) control the majority of the votes attaching to shares issued by the undertaking,

(c) can appoint more than half of the undertaking’s administrative, management or supervisory body.

3. For the purposes of this Article, ‘special or exclusive rights’ means rights granted by a competent authority of a Member State by way of any legislative, regulatory or administrative provision the effect of which is to limit the exercise of activities defined in Articles 8 to 14 to one or more entities, and which substantially affects the ability of other entities to carry out such activity.

Rights which have been granted by means of a procedure in which adequate publicity has been ensured and where the granting of those rights was based on objective criteria shall not constitute special or exclusive rights within the meaning of the first subparagraph.

Such procedures include:

(a) procurement procedures with a prior call for competition in conformity with Directive 2014/24/EU, Directive 2009/81/EC, Directive 2014/23/EU or this Directive;

(b) procedures pursuant to other legal acts of the Union listed in Annex II, ensuring adequate prior transparency for granting authorisations on the basis of objective criteria.

4. The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 103 concerning the modification of the list of Union legal acts set out in Annex II, when on the basis of the adoption of new legal acts, repeal or modification of such legal acts, such amendments prove necessary.