4.4 Confidentiality of tenders: what information and under what  conditions can be disclosed?  Once the  Contracting Authority  has opened a tender, it becomes its property and shall be  treated confidentially, subject to the following:    The  Contracting Authority  will disregard general statements that the whole tender or  substantial parts of it contain confidential information. Tenderers need to mark clearly the  information they consider confidential and explain why it may not be disclosed. The  Contracting Authority  reserves the right to make its own assessment of the confidential  nature of any information contained in the tender. • For the purposes of evaluating the tender and, if applicable, implementing the  contract, performing audits, benchmarking, etc., the  Contracting Authority is  entitled to make available (any part of) the tender to its staff and the staff of other  Union institutions, agencies and bodies, as well to other persons and entities  working for the  Contracting Authority  or cooperating with it, including contractors  or subcontractors and their staff provided that they are bound by an obligation of  confidentiality.  • After the signature of the award decision tenderers whose tenders were received in  accordance with the submission modalities, who have access to procurement, who  are not found to be in an exclusion situation referred to in Article 136(1) of the FR,  who are not rejected under Article 141 of the FR, whose tenders are not found to  be incompliant with the procurement documents, and who make a request in writing  will be notified of the name of the tenderer to whom the contract is awarded, the  characteristics and relative advantages of the successful tender and the price of the  offer and/or contract value. The  Contracting Authority may decide to withhold  certain information that it assesses as being confidential, in particular where its  release would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of economic operators  or might distort fair competition between them. Such information may include,  without being limited to, confidential aspects of tenders such as unit prices included  in the financial offer, technical or trade secrets 21 . • The  Contracting Authority  may disclose the submitted tender in the context of a  request for public access to documents, or in other cases where the applicable law  requires its disclosure. Unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure 22 ,  the  Contracting Authority  may refuse to provide full access to the submitted tender,  redacting the parts (if any) that contain confidential information, the disclosure of  which would undermine the protection of commercial interests of the tenderer,  including intellectual property. 21  For the definition of trade secrets please see Article 2 (1) of DIRECTIVE (EU) 2016/943 on the protection of  undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and  disclosure.  22  See Article 4 (2) of the REGULATION (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament,  Council and Commission documents. 46