Article 25. Digital procurement platforms.

1. Digital procurement platforms are made up of the set of services and IT systems, interconnected and interoperable, used by contracting authorities and granting bodies to carry out one or more activities referred to in Article 21, paragraph 1, and to ensure the full digitalisation of the entire life cycle of public contracts. To this end, the digital procurement platforms interact with the services of the national database of public contracts referred to in Article 23 as well as with the services of the national digital data platform referred to in Article 50-ter of the Digital Administration Code, referred to in Legislative Decree 7 March 2005, n. 82. 2. Contracting authorities and granting bodies use digital procurement platforms to carry out procedures for the awarding and execution of public contracts, according to the technical rules referred to in Article 26. Digital procurement platforms cannot alter equal access for operators, nor prevent or limit their participation in the tender procedure or distort competition, nor modify the object of the contract, as defined by the tender documents. The contracting authorities and the granting bodies ensure participation in the tender even in the event of proven malfunctioning, even if temporary, of the platforms, also possibly arranging the suspension of the deadline for the receipt of offers for the period of time necessary to restore normal functioning and the extension of the same for a duration proportional to the severity of the malfunction. 3. Contracting authorities and granting bodies not equipped with their own digital procurement platform make use of the platforms made available by other contracting authorities or granting bodies, by central clients or by aggregators, by autonomous regions or provinces, who in turn can use a system manager who guarantees the functioning and security of the platform. 4. It is forbidden to charge competitors or the successful tenderer any costs related to the management of the platforms. EFFECTIVE FROM: 1 January 2024