The tender committee of the Israel Land Authority disqualified three bids after they were placed in the tender box together by the same person.
The Court rejected the petition of the disqualified bidders and held that the tender committee's decision to disqualify the bidders due to apprehension of improper coordination should not be intervened with. Israeli tender laws prohibit any coordination between bidders, so that each bidder is obligated to formulate its bid in the tender based on considerations that concern such bidder only and without having any information about the bids of others. Such coordination between bidders undermines the fairness of the tender, harms the principle of equality and jeopradizes its economic purpose. Here, a man was seen on camera placing three different envelopes into the tender box. After an inquiry, it turned out that the director of one of the bidders put three different bids into the tender box, when the three bidders submitted an offer of almost the same amount, while dividing it among the different complexes without competition between them. In addition, it turned out that some of the bidders have business connections. The findings raised a reasonable suspicion of improper coordination and thus the tender committee's discretion should not be intervened with.