1. Concessions shall be awarded on the basis of objective criteria which ensure compliance with the principles of transparency, non-discrimination and equal treatment and which ensure that tenders are assessed in conditions of effective competition permitting to identify an overall economic advantage for the contracting authority or the contracting entity.
2. The award criteria shall be linked to the subject matter of the concession, and shall not confer an unrestricted freedom of choice on the contracting authority or the contracting entity.
Those criteria shall ensure effective competition and shall be accompanied by requirements which allow the information provided by the tenderers to be effectively verified. Contracting authorities and contracting entities shall verify effectively on the basis of the information and proof provided by the tenderers, whether the tenders meet the award criteria.
3. The contracting authority or the contracting entity shall indicate in the concession notice or documents the relative weighting which it gives to each of the criteria set out in paragraph 1 or list those criteria in descending order of importance.
4. Member States may provide that contracting authorities and contracting entites shall base the award of concessions on the criterion of the most economically advantageous tender, in compliance with paragraph 2. Those criteria may include, in addition to price or costs, any of the following criteria
(a) quality, including technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, accessibility, design for all users, environmental characteristics and innovative character.
(b) for service concessions and concessions involving the design of works, the organisation, qualification and experience of the staff assigned to performing the concession in question may be taken into consideration, with the consequence that, following the award of the concession, such staff may only be replaced with the consent of the contracting authority or the contracting entity, which must verify that replacements ensure equivalent organisation and quality;
(c) after-sales service and technical assistance, delivery date and delivery period or period of completion;
(d) the specific process of production or provision of the requested works, supplies or services or of any other stage of its life cycle as referred to in point 14 of paragraph 1 of Article 2, to the extent that those criteria concern factors directly involved in these processes and characterise the specific process of production or provision of the requested works, supplies or services.
5. In the case referred to in paragraph 4, the contracting authority or entity shall specify in the contract notice, in the invitation to submit a tender, or in the concession documents, the relative weighting which it gives to each of the criteria chosen to determine the most economically advantageous tender.
Those weightings may be expressed by providing for a range with an appropriate maximum spread.
Where weighting is not possible for objective reasons, the contracting authority or entity shall indicate the criteria in decreasing order of importance.