Contracting authorities/entities may in some exceptional cases conclude contracts with suppliers without competitive bidding.

One such exception is when the contracting authority's/entity's combined procurement of the same kind under a financial year is below the threshold values stated in the Acts. For 2017 the threshold value for lawful direct procurement are SEK 534,890 under the Public Procurement Act and SEK 993,368 under the Utilities Procurement Act and the Defense Procurement Act, and SEK 2,387,903 under the Concessions Procurement Act.

Another exemption is if there are exceptional reasons for the contracting authority/entity to conclude a contract with a supplier without any competitive bidding. This exception is, however, subject to a narrow interpretation and it must be applied in a restrictive manner.

In addition, there are some other specific exceptional situations where a contracting authority/entity may conclude a contract without competitive bidding. One such example is when the object of the procurement can only be performed by a particular supplier for technical or artistic reasons, or owing to exclusive rights. Another example is when it is strictly necessary to award the contract, but extreme urgency caused by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority/entity make it impossible to keep to the time limits for the normal procurement procedures.

If a contracts is awarded without following the right procedure set forth in the procurement regulations, e.g. unlawful direct procurements, the contract can be deemed void, meaning that the contract is considered retrospectively ineffective as of the first day it came into effect and that all performances of the contract shall be reversed between the parties (i.e. payment of money or supplies of goods must be returned).

However, the voidance of the contract has to be declared in a judicial review procedure. A frustrated bidder or a company interested in the contract has to initiate such a review procedure within certain time limits (see 8 d. below). If those time limits expire and no review procedure has been initiated, the directly awarded contract cannot be challenged as void anymore.