40That approach is based on Article 51(3) of Directive 2004/17, which states that the contracting entities are to ‘verify that the tenders submitted by the selected tenderers comply [with the rules and requirements applicable to tenders] …’, which presupposes, as stated by the Advocate General in point 63 of his Opinion, that the pre-selected economic operators and those who submit tenders are legally and substantively the same.
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