The awarding authority sets the award criteria in descending order of importance. The ranking of the criteria is indicated in the concession notice, in the invitation to submit a tender or in any other consultation document.
Exceptionally, the awarding authority may change the order of the criteria to take account of the innovative nature of a solution presented in a tender. Such a change must not be discriminatory. A bid is considered to present an innovative solution when it includes an exceptional level of functional performance, and could not have been foreseen by a diligent conceding authority. The conceding authority publishes a new concession notice or sends out a new invitation to submit a tender within the deadlines set out in articles R. 3124-2 and R. 3124-3.