Judgment_paragraph 115 · 'Klaipėdos regiono atliekų tvarkymo centras' v UAB (C-927/19)

115In that regard, it should be recalled that the principal objective of the EU rules on public procurement is the opening-up of public procurement to undistorted competition in all the Member States and that, in order to achieve that objective, it is important that the contracting authorities do not release information relating to public procurement procedures which could be used to distort competition, whether in an ongoing procurement procedure or in subsequent procedures. Furthermore, the obligation to state reasons for a decision rejecting a tender in a public procurement procedure does not mean that that unsuccessful tenderer must be provided with all the information regarding the characteristics of the tender accepted by the contracting authority. Since public procurement procedures are founded on a relationship of trust between the contracting authorities and participating economic operators, those operators must be able to communicate any relevant information to the contracting authorities in the procurement process, without fear that the authorities will communicate to third parties items of information whose disclosure could be damaging to those operators (see, to that effect, judgments of 14 February 2008, Varec, C‑450/06, EU:C:2008:91, paragraphs 34 to 36, and of 15 July 2021, Commission v Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and SRB, C‑584/20 P and C‑621/20 P, EU:C:2021:601, paragraph 112 and the case-law cited).