Public contract - determination and conditions of imprisonment

A public contract is one of the varieties of civil law relations. This concept is disclosed in Art. 426 Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The meaning of the concept is reduced to the provision of services (performance of work, sale of goods) by a commercial organization to each person applying. It is about the services that the organization carries out according to the type of activity.

That is, a public contract is a contract that has a civil law character and the following characteristic features:

1. One of the subjects of such a contract is necessarily a commercial organization. It can be a municipal or unitary state enterprise, a production cooperative, a society or a partnership. The counterparty is a physical (legal) person - the consumer of the services provided, goods or work results.

2. A possible subject of a public contract may not be every commercial organization. It depends on the type and nature of its activities. There are types of business activities designed to provide services or sale of goods to all those who apply without exception. An approximate list of such activities is given in art. 426 of the Civil Code (paragraph 1).

The main ones are retail trade, transportation by public transport, medical and hotel services, as well as communication and banking services (to raise funds for deposits).

3. A public contract relates to activities related to the content of the relevant activities of the organization. For example, if a subject provides medical services (a polyclinic), then this activity falls under the definition of a public contract. But if this same polyclinic buys or sells property or equipment for its own needs, then this contract (purchase and sale) does not belong to the category of public.

The public offer contract imposes certain legal restrictions on its subjects.

1. Such a commercial organization is deprived of the right to choose a partner or refusal to conclude a contract. If there is an opportunity to provide the consumer specified in the contract goods and services, the refusal to conclude a contract is considered unreasonable and carries all the relevant legal consequences.

2. The organization has no right to give preference to one consumer over others, except for cases stipulated by law. Preferential category of consumers of some services are veterans of the Great Patriotic War, invalids and some others.

3. A public contract presupposes the same conditions for the provision of services (including the prices of goods) for all consumers, except for cases of legal privileges for certain categories.

4. In the case of a public contract, disputes over its terms shall be decided in court regardless of the consent or disagreement of the parties. This public contract is fundamentally different from the ordinary civil law, disputes on which are submitted to the court for consideration only by mutual agreement of the parties.

If the organization's evasion of the conclusion of such a contract is found to be unreasonable, the latter can be forcibly enforced. The consumer may at the same time claim compensation for losses incurred due to a refusal to enter into a contract.

In addition, in the interests of consumers, the conditions for the implementation of a public contract (model rules, norms, etc.) can be established both by the federal legislature and by a government decree.

There are exemplary model contracts for different types of activities, on the basis of which the terms of a particular contract are being developed. For example, a contract for consumer services, supplies of construction materials, a contract for a particular type of work. Such model rules take into account the different specificity of activities and formulate a mechanism for protecting the rights of the consumer against the provider's unfair performance of the terms of the contract.