Definitions of terms country, municipalities, etc.

In Article 7 of the Law on Public Procurement (ÖAWG) the following terms or abbreviations are defined:

"Contractor": the offeror to whom a public contract has been awarded;

"Construction contract": the public contract on:

•  the execution, or simultaneously the execution and design, of a works service in connection with one of the works listed in Annex II to Directive 2014/24/EU or activities referred to in Annex I to Directive 2014/23/EU or a works project; or
• the provision of a construction service by subcontractors in accordance with the requirements specified by the contracting authority, which has a decisive influence on the nature and design of the project, by whatever means;

"Construction concession": a contract concluded in writing for valuable consideration by which one or more contracting authorities entrust one or more undertakings with the provision of construction services, the consideration consisting either solely in the right to use the work covered by the contract or in that right plus a payment;

"Construction work": the result of the totality of building and civil engineering works which, by its nature or purpose, is intended to fulfill an economic or technical function;

"Notice": the publication of the intention to award a public contract or a concession;

"Candidate": a natural or legal person applying for or having received an invitation to apply or participate in a restricted procedure, a negotiated procedure, a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice, a competitive dialogue or an innovation partnership;

"Service contract": the public contract for the provision of a service that does not fall under item 2;

"Service concession": a contract concluded for consideration, in writing, by which one or more contracting authorities entrust one or more undertakings with the provision and management of services other than the provision of works referred to in Clause 3, the consideration for which consists either solely in the right to exploit the services covered by the contract or in that right plus a payment;

"dynamic procurement system": a fully electronic procedure for procurements of market supplies or services where the characteristics generally available on the market meet the requirements of the contracting authority; this procedure is open throughout the procedure to any company that meets the eligibility criteria. It may be subdivided into categories of works, supplies or services objectively defined on the basis of characteristics of the intended award in the relevant category. These characteristics may include a reference to the maximum permissible scope of subsequent specific contracts or to a specific geographical area in which subsequent specific contracts are to be performed;

"Entity governed by public law": an entity that:

• was established for the specific purpose of performing tasks in the general interest, which are not of a commercial nature;
• has legal personality; and
• is predominantly financed by the state, municipalities or other bodies under public law, or which is subject to supervision by the latter with regard to its management, or whose administrative, management or supervisory body consists mainly of members appointed by the state, municipalities or other bodies under public law;

"electronic means": electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data transmitted, conveyed and received by wire, by radio, by optical means or by other electromagnetic means;

"European Technical Assessment": a documented assessment of the performance of a construction product in relation to its essential characteristics in accordance with the relevant European Assessment Document as defined in Article 2(12) of Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 laying down harmonized conditions for the marketing of construction products;

"EEA Agreement (EEA)": the Agreement of May 2, 1992, on the European Economic Area,

"common technical specification": a technical specification in the field of information and communication technology (ICT), drawn up in accordance with a procedure recognized by the EEA Member States or in accordance with the Articles 13 and 14 of Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012 on European standardization;

"Collective application or offer (collective offer)": the joint application or offer of several applicants or offerers who form a consortium;

"Supply Contract": a public contract involving the purchase, lease, rental or installment purchase, with or without an option to purchase, of goods. A public supply contract may include, as ancillary works, laying and installation works;

"Ancillary Procurement Activities": Activities in support of procurement activities involving:

• the provision of technical infrastructure that enables contracting authorities to award public contracts or conclude framework agreements for works, supplies, or services;
• the provision of advice on the execution or planning of procedures for the award of public contracts;
• the preparation and management of procedures for the award of public contracts in the name and on behalf of the contracting authority concerned;

"Standard": a technical specification adopted by a recognized standards organization for repeated or continuous application, compliance with which is not mandatory and which falls within one of the following categories:

• "international standard": a standard that has been adopted by an international standards organization and is available to the public;
• "European standard": a standard that has been adopted by a European standards organization and is available to the public;
• "national standard": a standard that has been adopted by a national standards organization and is available to the public;

"offer" (offer): the declaration of an offeror to execute a public contract or concession in the event of an award;

"Offeror" (bidder): the natural or legal person who makes an offer.

"Public contract": the written contract for pecuniary interest between one or more undertakings and one or more contracting entities for the execution of works, the supply of products or the provision of services;

"Public communications services": the communications services the provision of which the EEA Member States have expressly entrusted, in particular, to one or more telecommunications organizations;

"Public communications network": the public communications infrastructure used to transmit signals between defined network termination points by wire, by microwave, by optical or by other electromagnetic means;

"Design contest": the procedure used to provide the contracting authority, in particular in the fields of town and country planning, architecture and civil engineering or data processing, with a plan or design, the selection of which is made by a jury on the basis of comparative assessment with or without the distribution of prizes;

"Framework agreement": an agreement between one or more contracting authorities and one or more undertakings, the purpose of which is to establish the terms governing contracts to be awarded during a given period, in particular with regard to the price envisaged and, where appropriate, the quantity envisaged;

"written": any representation consisting of words or figures that can be read, reproduced and communicated. It may also include information transmitted and stored electronically;

"technical reference": any reference, other than an official standard, drawn up by a European standardization body in accordance with procedures adapted to the needs of the market;

"technical specification in public works contracts": the technical requirements for a work, material, product or supply contained in the tender documents, by means of which the work, material, product or supply may be designated in such a way as to fulfill its intended use as defined by the contracting authority. These characteristics include:

• Environmental performance levels, design for types of use (including handicapped access), and conformity assessment, fitness for use, safety, or dimension, including conformity assessment procedures, terminology, symbols, testing and inspection methods, packaging, marking and labeling, and production processes and methods; and
• the provisions for the design and calculation of works, the conditions for the testing, inspection and acceptance of works, the methods or procedures of construction and any other technical requirements which the contracting authority is able to specify for finished works or materials or parts necessary therefor by general and special provisions;

"technical specification in public works contracts": the totality of the technical descriptions contained in particular in the tender documents, defining the necessary characteristics of a material, product or supply in order that it fulfills the purpose intended by the contracting authority. These properties include:

• Environmental and climate performance levels, "design for all" (including accessibility for persons with disabilities) and conformity assessment, performance, specifications for fitness for use, safety, or dimensions, including quality assurance procedures, terminology, symbols, testing and inspection methods, packaging, marking and labeling, instructions for use, and production processes and methods at each stage of the life cycle of the works; and
• the provisions for design and costing, the conditions for testing, inspection and acceptance of works, the methods or procedures of construction and any other technical requirements which the contracting authority is in a position to specify for finished works or materials or parts necessary therefor by means of general and special provisions;

"technical specification in public supply and service contracts": a specification contained in a written document that prescribes characteristics for a product or service, such as quality levels, environmental and climate performance levels, "design for all" (including accessibility for people with disabilities) and conformity assessment, performance, specifications for fitness for use, safety or dimensions of the product, including provisions for sales name, terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging, marking and labeling, instructions for use, production processes and methods at any stage of the life cycle of the supply or service, and on conformity assessment procedures;

"Life cycle": all successive and/or interrelated stages, including research and development to be carried out, production, trade and related conditions, transportation, use and maintenance, during the life of a good or structure or during the provision of a service, starting from the procurement of raw materials or generation of resources and ending with disposal, clean-up and termination of the service or use;

"Undertaking" (economic operator): a natural or legal person, a public entity or a group of such persons and/or entities, including any temporary grouping of undertakings, which offers on the market the execution of works, the construction of works, the supply of goods or the provision of services;

"Variant offer (variant offer)": the offer for an alternative execution of the public contract;

"affiliated company":any company whose financial statements are consolidated with those of the contracting authority, candidate or tenderer in accordance with the provisions of the Persons and Companies Act (PGR) on consolidated financial statements; in the case of contracting authorities, candidates or tenderers not covered by the provisions of the PGR, affiliated undertakings are those over which the contracting authority, candidate or tenderer may exercise a dominant influence, directly or indirectly, or which, like the contracting authority, candidate or tenderer, are subject to the dominant influence of another undertaking, whether as a result of ownership, financial participation or the rules applicable to the undertaking;

"centralized procurement activities": activities carried out on a continuing basis that involve:

• the acquisition of supplies and/or services for contracting authorities; or
• the award of public contracts or the conclusion of framework agreements for works, supplies or services for contracting authorities;

"WTO Agreement": the Convention of 14 April 1994 on Government Procurement;

"central purchasing body": a contracting authority that carries out central procurement activities and possibly ancillary procurement activities;

"affected applicants": the contracting authority did not provide them with a notice of rejection of their application before the award notice was issued to the affected offerors;

"affected offerors": they have not yet been finally excluded. An exclusion is final when it has been communicated to the affected offerors and either has been recognized as lawful by the appeal authority or can no longer be subject to an appeal procedure;

"affected offerors": they have not yet finally been excluded

"Road vehicle": a vehicle belonging to one of the vehicle classes referred to in Table 3 of the Annex to Directive 2009/33/EC. This excludes vehicles according to Article 2(3) of Directive 2007/46/EC, which are not subject to type-approval or individual approval in accordance with road traffic legislation;

"Tender documents" (Concession documents): all documents prepared or referred to by the contracting authority in order to describe or define elements of the procurement, concession or procedure; these include the contract notice, the prior information notice if it serves as an invitation to participate in a competition, the technical specifications, the terms of reference, the proposed terms of the contract or concession, formats for the submission of documents by candidates and tenderers, information on generally applicable obligations, and other additional documents;

"Procurement service provider": a public or private law entity that offers ancillary procurement activities on the market;

"electronic auction": an iterative electronic process in which, after an initial full evaluation of the bids, which are assigned a ranking using automated evaluation methods, new downwardly revised prices and/or new values based on specific components of the bids are submitted in each case. Certain works and services contracts involving intellectual performance, such as the design of works, which cannot be ranked using automatic evaluation methods, may not be the subject of electronic auctions;

"Quality mark": a document, certificate, or attestation certifying that a particular work, good, or service, process, or procedure meets certain requirements;

"Quality mark requirements": the requirements that a construction, good or service, process or procedure must meet in order to obtain the relevant quality mark;

"Innovation": the realization of new or significantly improved goods, services or processes, including production, building or construction processes, a new marketing method or a new organizational process in terms of business practice, workplace operations or external relations, in order to contribute, inter alia, to addressing societal challenges or to supporting the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth;

"Conflict of interest": situations in which employees of the contracting authority or of a procurement service provider acting on behalf of the contracting authority who are involved in the conduct of the procurement procedure or who may influence the outcome of the procedure have, directly or indirectly, a financial, economic or other personal interest that may reasonably be perceived to affect their impartiality and independence in the procurement procedure;

"Concessionaire": an entity that has been awarded a concession;

"special or exclusive rights": rights arising from the authorization granted by the Principality of Liechtenstein or by the municipalities on the basis of legal and administrative regulations and resulting in:

• the exercise of an activity being reserved to two or more undertakings; and
• the possibility of other enterprises to carry out such activity is substantially impaired;

"electronic invoice": an invoice issued, transmitted and received in a structured electronic format that allows its automatic and electronic processing;

"Core elements of an electronic invoice": a set of essential information components that must be included in an electronic invoice and are essential for cross-border interoperability, including the information required to ensure compliance with the law;

"semantic data model": a structured and logically linked set of terms and their meanings that reflects the core elements of an electronic invoice;

"syntax": the machine-readable language or dialect of a machine-readable language used to represent the data elements contained in an electronic invoice;

"Syntax specifications": guides for representing a semantic data model for an electronic invoice in the various syntaxes;

"Procurement": the acquisition, by means of a public contract, of works, supplies or services by one or more contracting authorities from undertakings chosen by those contracting authorities, whether or not those works, supplies or services are intended for a public purpose.