Article 169. Regulated tender procedures.

1. With their own documents, published on their institutional sites and, in any case, accessible to all interested economic operators, without prejudice to the causes of automatic exclusion referred to in article 94, public companies and entities holding exclusive special rights may establish in advance which conduct constitute serious professional misconduct for the purposes of articles 95, paragraph 1, letter e) and 98. 2. If the contracting authorities or granting bodies find themselves in need of guaranteeing an adequate balance between the specific characteristics of the procurement procedure and the means necessary for its implementation, in restricted or negotiated procedures, in competitive dialogues or in innovation partnerships, they can define objective rules and criteria that reflect this need and allow the contracting authority or granting body to reduce the number of candidates that will be invited to submit an offer. The number of selected candidates takes into account the need to guarantee adequate competition. EFFECTIVE FROM: 1 July 2023