Public competition is a type of public promise of reward. The person who publicly announced the payment of a monetary reward or the issuance of another award (payment of an award) for the best performance of work or achievement of other results (the organizer) must pay (give out) the stipulated award to the one who, in accordance with the terms of the competition, is recognized as its winner. A public competition must be aimed at achieving some socially useful goals.

Organizers of the competition there may be any legal entities and (or) individuals, as well as state bodies and local governments. Circle of participants public competition is also unlimited.

Types of public competition: open - when the offer of the competition organizer to take part in it is addressed to everyone by means of an announcement in the press or other media; closed – when an offer to take part in a competition is sent to a certain circle of people chosen by the competition organizer.

Form announcement of a public competition can be of any kind.

The conditions that the competition announcement must contain are: are divided into mandatory and optional.

Mandatory conditions include: information about the essence of the task (the subject of the competition); deadline for completing the task; the procedure for presenting works or other achievements; place of presentation of the work; criterion, procedure and deadline for comparative evaluation of works; amount of remuneration (bonus); procedure and deadline for announcing the results of the competition.

Optional conditions are specified at the free discretion of the competition organizer, and their number and nature depend on the characteristics of the competition.

Changing the conditions and canceling the public competition: the person who announced a public competition has the right to change its conditions or cancel the competition only during the first half of the deadline established for the submission of works; notification of changes in conditions or cancellation of the competition must be made in the same way as the competition was announced; the person who announced the competition must reimburse the expenses incurred by any person, cat. completed the work specified in the advertisement before he became or should have become aware of the change in the conditions of the competition and its cancellation; the person who announced the competition is released from the obligation to reimburse expenses if he proves that the specified work was not performed in connection with the competition, in particular before the announcement of the competition, or knowingly did not comply with the conditions of the competition.

The competition organizer is obliged to return competition works that are not awarded an award to the participants immediately after the announcement of the results. Failure to fulfill this obligation gives the competition participants the right to demand the return of their works, and in case of their loss or damage, compensation for losses.

1. A person who publicly announced the payment of a monetary reward or the issuance of another reward (payment of an award) for the best performance of work or achievement of other results (public competition) must pay (give out) the stipulated reward to the one who, in accordance with the terms of the competition, is recognized as his winner.

2. A public competition must be aimed at achieving some socially useful goals.

3. A public competition can be open when the offer of the competition organizer to take part in it is addressed to everyone by means of an announcement in the press or other means mass media, or closed, when an offer to take part in the competition is sent to a certain circle of people chosen by the competition organizer.

An open competition may be conditioned by the preliminary qualification of its participants, when the organizer of the competition carries out a preliminary selection of persons who wish to take part in it.

4. The announcement of a public competition must contain at least the conditions stipulating the essence of the task, the criteria and procedure for assessing the results of work or other achievements, the place, deadline and procedure for their presentation, the size and form of the award, as well as the procedure and timing for announcing the results of the competition.

5. For a public competition containing an obligation to conclude an agreement with the winner of the competition, the rules provided for by this chapter apply to the extent that Articles 447 - 449 of this Code do not provide otherwise.

Commentary to Art. 1057 Civil Code of the Russian Federation

1. Today, such a legal action as the announcement of a public competition is becoming increasingly widespread in civil circulation. According to S.A. Chernysheva, by its legal nature, the competition is a unilateral transaction, which is characterized by the expression of the will of one party. The announcement of a competition is a one-sided transaction, because for it to occur, the expression of the will of the organizer of the competition is sufficient. Submission by a person of work completed in accordance with the terms of the competition is also a one-sided transaction, since the person’s desire to participate in the competition is expressed without prior agreement on issues related to the competition.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 43) introduces the concept of “on a competitive basis” in relation to obtaining higher education in state or municipal educational institutions. However, the practical application of this concept is much wider. It is found in many laws adopted recently and affects various aspects of the life of the state and society. Thus, in pursuance of Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 12, 1993 N 443 “On urgent measures state support undergraduate and graduate students educational institutions higher vocational education» and Regulations on Presidential Scholarships Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated September 6, 1993 N 613-rp (as amended by Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation dated February 14, 2010 N 182, dated June 22, 2010 N 773, dated March 8, 2011 N 285), announced an open public competition for scholarships from the President of the Russian Federation to study abroad for students and graduate students of Russian universities in the 2011/2012 academic year.

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Collection of acts of the President and Government of the Russian Federation. 1993. N 16. Art. 1341.

Collection of acts of the President and Government of the Russian Federation. 1993. N 37. Art. 3451.

Collection of legislation of the Russian Federation. 2010. N 8. Art. 837.

Collection of legislation of the Russian Federation. 2010. N 26. Art. 3331.

Collection of legislation of the Russian Federation. 2011. N 11. Art. 1514.

Typically, a public competition is announced by organizations interested in achieving the best results in a certain field of activity. However, as practice shows, the organizers and participants of a public competition do not always clearly understand the legal side of the relationship they enter into in connection with its announcement.

A public competition is, first of all, one of the most important institutions of civil law, by virtue of which a person who has publicly announced the issuance of an award for the best performance of work or the achievement of other results, undertakes to hold the competition within a specified period and give the stipulated award to the one who, in accordance with the conditions of the competition was declared the winner.

A public competition and a public announcement of a reward are united by a public promise of a reward for performing a lawful action.

The public nature is manifested in the fact that the advertisement is addressed to an indefinite number of people in a public place. This could be an appeal made on the Internet or at a press conference during an international exhibition, in print and electronic media.

The announcement of a public competition is understood as a message made by the organizer of the competition in a manner accessible to an indefinite circle of persons about his acceptance of the obligation to pay a property reward to the winner of the competition, i.e. to the one who, in accordance with the terms of the competition, will be recognized as having best performed certain work or achieved other best results.

2. A necessary feature of the results of the actions of competition participants must be their contribution to the achievement of any socially useful goals. As for the public promise of an award, the message about this, as in the case of a public competition, should be accessible to an indefinite circle of people. At the same time, unlike a competition, with a public promise, a reward can be promised for performing not only a socially useful action, but also any other lawful action, usually aimed at satisfying the interests of a private person (for example, finding a lost item, receiving necessary information). In addition, the reward must be paid to anyone who completes the action specified in the advertisement. If the required action is performed by several persons, then the right to the reward is acquired by the one who performed this action first, and not by the one who achieved the results and is recognized as the winner of the competition.

Both the public promise of a reward and the public competition as a type of public promise of a reward, as noted above, are traditionally considered one-sided transactions. Meanwhile, in relation to them in this aspect one can discern some difference.

According to Professor A.M. Erdelevsky, the qualification of a public promise of a reward as a unilateral transaction is beyond doubt. For an obligation to pay a reward to arise, two legal facts must exist: 1) a public announcement by the promisor of the payment of the reward; 2) the commission by another person of the action that determines the payment of the reward. Of these actions, only the first should be aimed at the onset of legal consequences inherent in the promise of a reward, namely, the emergence of an obligation to pay the reward. The actual direction of the will of the person who committed the corresponding action is legally indifferent for the emergence of this obligation, since according to paragraph 4 of Art. 1055 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the obligation to pay a reward arises regardless of whether the corresponding action was taken in connection with the announcement made or independently of it.

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Erdelevsky A.M. Public promise of reward // Legality. 2000. N 8. P. 11.

The direction of the will of the person performing the required action to receive a reward has legal significance only as the basis for the emergence of his right to reimbursement of expenses incurred in connection with the commission of this action, in the event of the lawful cancellation of the public promise of a reward, since such a right may arise for the person who “responded” to announcement (clause 2 of article 1056 of the Civil Code).

The one-sided nature of such a transaction as a public competition is not so obvious. For the obligation of the organizer of a public competition to pay an award, four legal facts must exist: 1) the organizer’s announcement of a public competition; 2) performance of certain work by competition participants or achievement of other results; 3) presentation of the results of the competition task for participation in the competition; 4) recognition of the competition participant as the winner.

It is easy to see that completing the competition task and presenting the results for participation in the competition together form the action the fulfillment of which determines the promise of a reward in a public competition. Completing the first part of this action - completing the competition task - may well not be related to the announcement of the competition and may not be aimed at taking part in it. However, the second part of the competition participant’s action - submitting the results of the completed work to the competition - is always aimed at entering into an obligatory legal relationship with the organizer of a public competition and achieving the legal consequences inherent in such a competition.

The foregoing gives grounds for some Russian civil law scholars (including V.P. Mozolin, S.A. Chernysheva, A.M. Erdelevsky and some others) to consider a public competition not as a one-sided transaction, but as a kind of agreement, where the announcement of the competition turns out to be a type of public offer, which becomes irrevocable after the first half of the period established for the submission of works, and the submission of the results of the work to the competition becomes an acceptance of the offer in accordance with clause 3 of Art. 438 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, which states that the performance by the person who received the offer, within the period established for its acceptance, of actions to fulfill the terms of the contract specified in it (shipment of goods, provision of services, performance of work, payment of the appropriate amount, etc.) is considered acceptance, unless otherwise provided by law, other legal acts or specified in the offer.

3. The organizers of a public competition can be: legal entities, and citizens, and the public competition itself can be open or closed. The legal capacity of citizens participating in the competition is determined by the general rules of civil law. There are no age restrictions. This means that not only adult citizens, but also minors aged 14 to 18 years can participate in the competition, because they have the right to independently, without the consent of parents, adoptive parents and trustees, exercise the rights of the author of a work of science, literature or art, invention or other protected the law of the result of one’s intellectual activity (). For minors under 14 years of age according to Art. 28 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, transactions can be made on their behalf by legal representatives (parents, adoptive parents, guardians).

The range of participants in the competition depends on the type of competition. If the public competition is open, then the organizer’s offer to take part in it is addressed to everyone through an announcement in the media.

An open competition may also be conditioned by the preliminary qualification of its participants, when the organizer of the competition carries out a preliminary selection of persons who wish to take part in it.

So, before the XIV International competition named after P.I. Tchaikovsky, held from June 14 to July 2, 2011 in Moscow, all applicants for participation in this competition were asked to undergo a preliminary selection, which formed the final composition of competitors in four categories (piano, violin, cello, solo singing) . It should be noted that a certain age limit was established for this competition: instrumentalists - 16 - 30 years old, singers - 19 - 32 years old.

In a closed competition, participants make up a certain circle of people chosen by the competition organizer.

The possibility of holding a closed competition in relation to, for example, placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for state and municipal needs is regulated by special Federal law dated July 21, 2005 N 94-FZ “On placing orders for the supply of goods, performance of work, provision of services for state and municipal needs” (as amended and additionally entered into force on January 1, 2011).

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Collection of legislation of the Russian Federation. 2005. N 30 (part 1). Art. 3105.

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation, by its Order No. 124 dated May 3, 2006, approved the Procedure, which regulates the issues of holding a closed competition, a closed auction, the possibility of concluding a state or municipal contract with a single supplier (performer, contractor).

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Bulletin of normative acts. 2006. N 30.

Nevertheless, the announcement of a closed competition itself must be made publicly, although in this case not necessarily through the media, but in any way, for example, through a wall newspaper, posting advertisements, distributing information leaflets. This conclusion follows from paragraph 1 of the commented article, where the publicity of the announcement of the payment of the award is indicated as a mandatory feature of any public competition, both open and closed.

4. The content of a unilateral transaction (public announcement by the organizer of a competition) or an agreement on a public competition constitutes essential and other conditions. Clause 4 of the commented article establishes fairly stringent requirements for the content of the announcement of a public competition. It should include conditions defining the essence of the task (i.e., what kind of work must be performed or what results must be achieved), criteria and procedure for evaluating the results of work or other achievements (by the organizer of the competition itself, a specially formed jury, etc. .), place, timing and procedure for submitting results to the competition, size and form of the award, as well as the procedure and timing for announcing the results of the competition. Establishing criteria for evaluating results is necessary, in particular, in order to exclude the possibility of arbitrarily determining the winner of the competition. Absence in the competition announcement of any of necessary conditions entails its invalidity.

Thus, the essential conditions of a public competition include the following: subject of the transaction; place, timing and procedure for providing work or other achievements; criterion and procedure for evaluating work results; size and shape of the award; procedure and timing for announcing the results of the competition.

Other conditions may include the procedure and timing of payment of remuneration, as well as the fate of works submitted to the competition that were not awarded.

The subject of the transaction is the implementation of lawful actions aimed at achieving a socially useful goal and constituting the essence of the task.

The presence of a socially useful purpose means that the competition itself and its results serve society as a whole, since it is interested in identifying and supporting talented performers, developing projects for the protection of monuments, protecting environment and so on.

The essence of the task is described as the requirements for the work and its result. Detailed requirements for the result of work are also practiced. Thus, the program of the XIII International Competition named after P.I. Tchaikovsky regulated in detail the content of each round, as well as the mandatory requirements for the performance of certain types of musical works by contestants in each round.

The place where the work is presented is usually the address of the organizer or his authorized representative. The terms of the competition may stipulate that the work is presented in a public place, i.e. Along with the jury, access to spectators and listeners is also provided.

Setting a deadline for submitting work is necessary to ensure that all participants are in the same time conditions for the successful completion of the task specified in the advertisement. The deadline must be realistic. Final and intermediate deadlines may be set for the submission of work. For a performing competition, the organizer usually approves calendar plan competition, indicating the dates of registration, draw, each round (listening, viewing), award ceremony and closing.

The terms of the competition may provide for the provision of work under a motto in order to maintain the secret of the participant’s name in order to objectively determine the winner.

The essential conditions include the criteria and procedure for assessing the results of work. The organizer has the right to independently evaluate the achievements submitted to the competition or to involve third parties. Sometimes, as noted above, a jury, competition commission or committee is created specifically for these purposes. The results of the work can be assessed by any permanent body of the competition organizer.

For each competition, taking into account its specifics, criteria for assessing the results of work are established. The score can be derived based on the sum of points scored for each criterion.

A prerequisite is to determine the procedure and deadline for announcing the results of the competition. The exact date for announcing the results of the competition or the period during which the result is announced after the decision to select the winner is made.

The result is communicated either orally to all participants, or through the media simultaneously with the notification of each winner, or in writing. Sometimes it is specifically stated that the result will be announced in a solemn atmosphere.

5. A separate group is represented by the rules governing the conclusion of contracts at auctions, one of the forms of which is competitions (Article 447 of the Civil Code). The purpose of these competitions is the alienation of certain property to the one who offered the best conditions for it. As a result of such competitions, the organizers are obliged to enter into an agreement with the winner, which defines their obligations. The object of the competition in the sense of Ch. 57 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation are pre-announced obligations of the organizer. Therefore, the norms of the commented chapter can be applied to relations arising during bidding only in cases where these relations are not regulated by these norms and do not contradict them.

A person who publicly announced the payment of a monetary reward or the issuance of another reward (payment of an award) for the best performance of work or achievement of other results (public competition) must pay (give out) the stipulated reward to the one who, in accordance with the terms of the competition, is recognized as its winner. A public competition must be aimed at achieving some socially useful goals (Article 1057 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

One of the differences between a public competition and a public promise of a reward lies in the initially specified competitiveness - not any “respondent” who has presented a conditional result can demand the issuance of a reward (i.e., act as a creditor), but only one of the “respondents” whose result is recognized the best.

A public competition can be open, when the offer of the organizer of the competition to take part in it is addressed to everyone by means of an announcement in the press or other media, or closed, when the offer to take part in the competition is sent to a certain circle of persons at the choice of the organizer of the competition. An open competition may be conditioned by the preliminary qualification of its participants, when the organizer of the competition carries out a preliminary selection of persons who wish to take part in it.

A public competition is also characterized by a greater degree of formalization.

The announcement of a public competition must contain at least the conditions stipulating the essence of the task, the criteria and procedure for assessing the results of work or other achievements, the place, deadline and procedure for their presentation, the size and form of the award, as well as the procedure and timing for announcing the results of the competition.

The person who announced a public competition has the right to change its conditions or cancel the competition only during the first half of the deadline established for the submission of works. Notification of changes in conditions or cancellation of the competition must be made in the same way in which the competition was announced (Article 1058 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

In the event of a change in the terms of the competition or its cancellation, the person who announced the competition must reimburse the costs incurred by any person who performed the work specified in the announcement before he became or should have become aware of the change in the terms of the competition and its cancellation. The person who announced the competition is released from the obligation to reimburse expenses if he proves that the specified work was not performed in connection with the competition, in particular before the announcement of the competition, or knowingly did not comply with the conditions of the competition.

The decision to pay the award must be made and communicated to the participants of the public competition in the manner and within the time limits established in the competition announcement. If the results specified in the advertisement are achieved in work performed jointly by two or more persons, the reward is distributed in accordance with the agreement reached between them. If such an agreement is not reached, the procedure for distributing the award is determined by the court (Article 1059 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

If the subject of a public competition is the creation of a work of science, literature or art and the terms of the competition do not provide otherwise, the person who announced the public competition acquires the preemptive right to enter into a contract with the author of a work that has been awarded a stipulated award, with the payment to him of an appropriate remuneration for this (Article 1060 Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

In this case, the person who announced the public competition is obliged to return to the participants the works that were not awarded an award, unless otherwise provided by the announcement of the competition and does not follow from the nature of the work performed (Article 1061 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

Interpretation of the concepts competition and auction: Video

Organization of a public competition

1. A person who publicly announced the payment of a monetary reward or the issuance of another reward (payment of an award) for the best performance of work or achievement of other results (public competition) must pay (give out) the stipulated reward to the one who, in accordance with the terms of the competition, is recognized as his winner.

2. A public competition must be aimed at achieving some socially beneficial goals.

3. A public competition can be open, when the offer of the organizer of the competition to take part in it is addressed to everyone by means of an announcement in the press or other media, or closed, when the offer to take part in the competition is sent to a certain circle of people at the choice of the organizer of the competition.

An open competition may be conditioned by the preliminary qualification of its participants, when the organizer of the competition carries out a preliminary selection of persons who wish to take part in it.

4. The announcement of a public competition must contain at least the conditions stipulating the essence of the task, the criteria and procedure for assessing the results of work or other achievements, the place, deadline and procedure for their presentation, the size and form of the award, as well as the procedure and timing for announcing the results of the competition.

5. For a public competition containing an obligation to conclude an agreement with the winner of the competition, the rules provided for by this chapter apply to the extent that this Code does not provide otherwise.

Article . Changing the conditions and canceling the public competition

1. The person who announced a public competition has the right to change its conditions or cancel the competition only during the first half of the deadline established for the submission of works.

2. Notification of changes in conditions or cancellation of the competition must be made in the same way as the competition was announced.

3. In the event of a change in the conditions of the competition or its cancellation, the person who announced the competition must reimburse the expenses incurred by any person who completed the work specified in the announcement before he became or should have become aware of the change in the conditions of the competition and its cancellation.

The person who announced the competition is released from the obligation to reimburse expenses if he proves that the specified work was not performed in connection with the competition, in particular before the announcement of the competition, or knowingly did not comply with the conditions of the competition.

4. If, when changing the conditions of the competition or when canceling it, the requirements specified in paragraphs 1 or 2 of this article were violated, the person who announced the competition must pay a reward to those who completed work that satisfies the conditions specified in the announcement.

Article . Decision on payment of reward

1. The decision to pay the award must be made and communicated to the participants of the public competition in the manner and within the time limits established in the competition announcement.

2. If the results specified in the advertisement are achieved in work performed jointly by two or more persons, the reward is distributed in accordance with the agreement reached between them. If such an agreement is not reached, the procedure for distributing the award is determined by the court.

Article . Use of award-winning works of science, literature and art

If the subject of a public competition is the creation of a work of science, literature or art and the terms of the competition do not provide otherwise, the person who announced the public competition acquires the preemptive right to conclude an agreement with the author of the work that has been awarded a specified award on the use of the work with the payment of an appropriate remuneration for this.

Article . Return of submitted works to participants of the public competition

The person who announced a public competition is obliged to return works not awarded to the participants of the competition, unless otherwise provided by the announcement of the competition and does not follow from the nature of the work performed.

A public competition is a type of public promise of a reward. The person who publicly announced the payment of a monetary reward or the issuance of another award (payment of an award) for the best performance of work or achievement of other results (the organizer) must pay (give out) the stipulated award to the one who, in accordance with the terms of the competition, is recognized as its winner. A public competition must be aimed at achieving some socially useful goals.

Organizers of the competition There can be any legal entities and (or) individuals, as well as government. organs and organs local government. Circle of participants public competition is also unlimited.

Types of public competition: open - when the offer of the organizer of the competition to take part in it is addressed to everyone by means of an announcement in the press or other media; closed - when an offer to take part in a competition is sent to a certain circle of people chosen by the competition organizer.

Form announcement of a public competition can be of any kind.

Conditions, cat. must contain a competition announcement, are divided into mandatory and optional.

Mandatory conditions include: information about the essence of the task (the subject of the competition); deadline for completing the task; the procedure for presenting works or other achievements; place of presentation of the work; criterion, procedure and deadline for comparative evaluation of works; amount of remuneration (bonus); procedure and deadline for announcing the results of the competition.

Optional conditions are specified at the free discretion of the competition organizer, and their number and nature depend on the characteristics of the competition.

Changing the conditions and canceling the public competition: the person who announced a public competition has the right to change its conditions or cancel the competition only during the first half of the period established for the submission of works; notification of changes in conditions or cancellation of the competition must be made in the same way as the competition was announced; the person who announced the competition must reimburse the expenses incurred by any person, cat. completed the work specified in the advertisement before he became or should have become aware of the change in the conditions of the competition and its cancellation; the person who announced the competition is released from the obligation to reimburse expenses if he proves that the specified work was not performed in connection with the competition, in particular before the announcement of the competition, or knowingly did not comply with the conditions of the competition.

Right to receive an award (premium) arises for the competition participant only if his work is recognized as the best. If results are achieved in work performed jointly by two or more persons, the reward is distributed in accordance with the agreement reached between them. If such an agreement is not reached, the order of distribution of the award is determined by the court.

The competition organizer is obliged to return competition works that are not awarded an award to the participants immediately after the announcement of the results. Failure to fulfill this obligation gives the competition participants the right to demand the return of their works, and in case of their loss or damage - compensation for losses.