Article 89 · Variants

1.Where public buyers do not formulate specifications solely in the form of functional requirements pursuant to Article 88(3), they shall consider whether to allow variants. For the purposes of this Regulation, ‘variant’ means a tender that partially deviates from specifications set out in the procurement detail offering an alternative solution to meet the public buyer’s needs.

2.Public buyers shall indicate in the procurement detail whether or not they allow variants, and if not, the main reasons for that decision. Public buyers shall specify any minimum requirements that variants must satisfy, provided that they do not unnecessarily restrict the ability of economic operators to propose alternative solutions capable of meeting the buyer’s needs and objectives. Variants shall be linked to the subject-matter of the contract pursuant to Article 90 and evaluated on the basis of the same award criteria as non-variant tenders.