Below the public-tender threshold, a public body may award a contract by gré à gré; from the threshold up, it must publish a call for tenders. Provincial bodies award 4.5 times as many gré à gré contracts just under the threshold as just above it, and municipal bodies 3.3 times as many. At a round amount with no legal meaning, the same ratio is only 1.2.

The wall follows the law. Each time the threshold moved, the wall moved with it, including in 2022, when municipal bodies adopted the new threshold nine months after provincial ones. In the zone just under the threshold there are 36% more gré à gré contracts than the surrounding trend predicts.

Above the threshold, bodies cite an exception the law provides: 16% of gré à gré contracts there cite that only one contractor is possible, against 0.7% just below, where the most common ground is an amount below the threshold (39%).

A gré à gré contract awarded below the threshold is lawful. This finding describes the rule's effect on the market; it says nothing about the reasons behind any one contract or any one body.