(a) Once an application is made to the Court under the provisions of Article 8(1)(b) of the European Communities (Award of Contracts by Utility Undertakings) (Review Procedures) Regulations, 2010 ("the Regulations") seeking the review of a decision of a contracting entity to award a contract to a particular tenderer or candidate, the relevant contracting entity is precluded from concluding the contract in question under the provisions of Art. 8(2) of the Regulation notwithstanding the fact that the relevant application to the Court is initiated after the standstill period provided for in the Regulation has expired. Furthermore, it is unnecessary for the applicant to make a specific application by motion to the Court in order that such a preclusion come into effect. Rather the preclusion arises automatically on the bringing of the substantive application under Art.8(1)(b).
(b) The Regulation does not confer on the courts a jurisdiction to entertain an application by the contracting entity concerned to be permitted to conclude the relevant contract prior to the determination of the application for review;
(c) In those circumstances the question of the criteria which would apply on such an application, were one permitted to be made, does not arise; and
(d) It is also unnecessary and inappropriate to determine the issues which were debated on this appeal concerning the merits of the outcome of such an application on the facts of this case.
