The purchaser may, in compliance with the rules applicable to the procedures defined in this Title, use purchasing techniques to pre-select economic operators likely to meet its needs or to enable tenders to be submitted or selected in accordance with specific procedures.
The purchasing techniques are as follows:
1° Framework agreements, which enable one or more economic operators to be pre-selected with a view to concluding a contract laying down all or part of the rules relating to orders to be placed during a given period. The duration of framework agreements may not exceed four years for contracting authorities and eight years for contracting entities, save in exceptional cases which are duly justified, in particular by their purpose or by the fact that their execution requires investments which can be amortised over a longer period;
2° Design contests, by means of which the purchaser selects a plan or project after inviting competition and obtaining the opinion of a jury;
3° Qualification systems, reserved for contracting entities, intended to pre-select, throughout their period of validity, candidates capable of carrying out specific services;
4° The dynamic purchasing system, which enables one or more economic operators to be pre-selected for commonly used purchases, in accordance with an open and entirely electronic process;
5° The electronic catalogue, which enables tenders or one of their components to be submitted electronically and in a structured form;
6° Electronic auctions, the purpose of which is to select bids electronically for a supply contract with a value equal to or greater than the thresholds for the formalised procedure, by allowing candidates to revise their prices downwards or modify the value of certain other quantifiable elements of their bids.