J Varney & Sons Limited v Hertfordshire County Council

John Howell QC and James Segan represented Hertfordshire County Council in the Court of Appeal, successfully resisting an appeal brought by a waste operator against the dismissal of his multi-million pound damages claim against the Council for alleged breaches of the EU public procurement rules.  The judgment of the Court of Appeal will be of interest for many public bodies procuring goods and services under the EU regime, since it is the first domestic appellate case to consider the ECJ’s recent case law on the ambit of the duty of transparency and how it relates to the disclosure of criteria, sub-criteria and their weightings.