Expiry of the bid validity period means that the contractor ceases to be obliged to conclude the contract on the terms proposed in the bid. After this period, it may refuse to sign the contract, even if its bid has been recognised as the most advantageous.

The institution of the bid validity period is provided for in Article 220 and Article 307 of the Public Procurement Law (PPL). Both provisions regulate the period during which the contractor is bound by its bid, the case where the most advantageous bid is not selected before the expiry of the period originally specified in the procurement documents, the requirement that the contractor must fulfil for the bid validity period to be effectively extended, and the issue of the bid security (wadium). 

First of all, it should be explained what being bound by a bid actually is. Since, to quote: “public procurement law does not define the concept of being bound by a bid. As a bid is a declaration to the other party of the will to conclude a contract, if it specifies the essential provisions of that contract (Article 66 CC), being bound by a bid can be defined as the will to conclude a contract remaining in force for the appropriate time.” (Nowicki Józef Edmund, Wiśniewski Piotr, Prawo zamówień publicznych. Komentarz, 5th edition, published: WKP 2023).

Turning to the essence, namely the bid validity period, it should be emphasised that this period differs depending on the type of public procurement contract award procedure being conducted. In a contract award procedure with a value equal to or exceeding the EU thresholds, the contractor is bound by its bid for no longer than 90 days from the day on which the time limit for submitting bids expires, or 120 days if the contract value for works is equal to or exceeds the PLN equivalent of EUR 20,000,000, and for supplies or services – EUR 10,000,000. In contract award procedures with a value below the EU thresholds, the contractor is bound by its bid for no longer than 30 days from the day on which the time limit for submitting bids expires. However, the first day of the bid validity period is the day on which the time limit for submitting bids expires. In addition, in a contract award procedure with a value equal to or exceeding the EU thresholds, the contracting authority specifies the bid validity period in the procurement documents by indicating a date, which follows directly from Article 220(2) PPL. In other words, the contracting authority is obliged to indicate the day until which the contractor will be bound by the bid submitted in the public procurement contract award procedure.  

If the contracting authority does not select the most advantageous bid before the expiry of the bid validity period, the contracting authority is entitled to ask the contractors once to consent to an extension of the period by a period specified by the contracting authority. In a contract award procedure with a value equal to or exceeding the EU thresholds, this period may not be longer than 60 days. In contract award procedures with a value below the EU thresholds, on the other hand, it may not be longer than 30 days. 

For the bid validity period to be effectively extended, the contractor must submit a written statement consenting to the extension of the bid validity period. The term “written form” should be decoded in the light of the definition of “written form” contained in the PPL, which means that the contractor may give its consent by sending the statement to the contracting authority by means of electronic communication (e.g. e-mail). This is because written form should be understood as a way of expressing information using words, figures or other written characters that can be read and reproduced.

If the contractor has not given written consent to the extension of the bid validity period, the contracting authority will reject the contractor’s bid on the basis of Article 226(1)(12) PPL. Expiry of the bid validity period means that the contractor ceases to be obliged to conclude the contract on the terms proposed in the bid. After this period, it may refuse to sign the contract, even if its bid has been recognised as the most advantageous.

Extension of the bid validity period may also entail the need to extend the validity period of the bid security (wadium), or alternatively to provide a new bid security for the extended bid validity period, where the contracting authority requires contractors to provide a bid security in the contract award procedure.