Interpretation services in court are not exempt from the procurement requirement

During 2020, the District Court of Västmanland has regularly bought interpretation services without prior contract notice. Now, the Swedish Competition Authority has petitioned that the District Court be obliged to pay a procurement fine for a contract signed with an interpreter who was hired in December 2020 to assist with interpretation in a hearing on extension of remand.

The District Court is of the view that interpretation services need not be procured in accordance with the Public Procurement Act (LOU). As they constitute legal services, they are covered by an exemption in the act meaning that there is no requirement on procurement, according to the District Court.

Swedish Competition Authority maintains that interpretation is not a legal service, but a linguistic one. Therefore, the exemption in the act does not apply. In the case in question, it cannot have been a matter of such urgency that the District Court could be excused from the duty to publish a contract notice. The service should therefore have been procured through a publication of contract notice, according to the Swedish Competition Authority.

“The matter of procurement of interpretation services affects all courts and the pending judgment in the case is therefore of high interest as guidance,” says Rikard Jermsten, director-general of the Swedish Competition Authority.

The Swedish Competition Authority is now petitioning to the Administrative Court of Uppsala that the District Court of Västmanland be obliged to pay a procurement fine of SEK 80,000.

For further information, please contact:

Marie Strömberg Lindvall, communications officer, +46(0)76 542 15 92, marie.stromberglindvall@kkv.se
Stefan Olsen Siri, legal counsel, +46(0)8 700 15 37, stefan.olsensiri@kkv.se

Read the application, dnr 733/2021