The Public Procurement Acceleration Act entered into force on 01.07.2026
The Act to Accelerate the Award of Public Contracts (Public Procurement Acceleration Act) came into force on 01.07.2026.
It aims to simplify and accelerate public procurement. Further details can be found in the linked full version of this article.
Overview of the affected laws / regulations
The amendments primarily affect the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB) and the Public Procurement Ordinance (VgV). Furthermore, they also affect the Budget Principles Act and the Federal Budget Code (BHO), the Competition Register Act, the Act to Accelerate the Deployment of Liquefied Natural Gas, the Passenger Transport Act, the Federal Armed Forces Procurement Acceleration Act, consequential amendments to the Act to Combat Undeclared Work, the Fast Charging Act, the Minimum Wage Act, the Posted Workers Act, Book V of the German Social Code (SGB V), the Hydrogen Acceleration Act, the Sectoral Ordinance, the Concessions Award Ordinance, the Public Procurement Statistics Ordinance, the Public Procurement Ordinance for Defense and Security, and the Ordinance on Budgetary Matters in Social Security.
Simplification of the procedure
In the future, specifications no longer need to be unambiguous and exhaustive, but only unambiguous (cf. Section 121 Paragraph 1 GWB nF, Section 29 Paragraph 2 VgV nF).
Furthermore, the suitability assessment will be simplified. Companies will be required to submit self-declarations to demonstrate their suitability and the absence of grounds for exclusion under Sections 123 and 124 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB). Additional documentation will only be requested from promising applicants or bidders. The deadlines for submitting specific documents must now also be stated in the contract notice. A reference to the electronic address and the relevant department in the linked tender documents is sufficient in this regard. If the documents requested from promising applicants/bidders are not submitted within the specified reasonable deadline, a subsequent request is permissible in accordance with Section 56 of the German Procurement Ordinance (VgV) (Section 122 GWB nF, Section 48 VgV nF).
In the future, the contracting authority will therefore conduct a preliminary suitability assessment based on the self-declarations that are generally required and submitted with the application to participate or the bid. If further evidence of suitability is requested from promising applicants or bidders, the final suitability assessment, taking into account all documents, must be carried out within the framework of the competitive bidding process or, in the case of procedures without competitive bidding, in any case before the contract is awarded.
In open procedures, the evaluation process should also be simplified by regularly carrying out the bid evaluation before the suitability assessment (see Section 42 Paragraph 4 VgV nF).
Restriction of bidder protection
If a bidder's review application is unsuccessful before the Public Procurement Chamber and they file an immediate appeal, they will no longer be able to prevent the contracting authority from awarding the contract before the appeals court has reached a decision. This is because, in the event of the review application being rejected, the immediate appeal no longer has suspensive effect on the decision of the Public Procurement Chamber (see Sections 173, 169 of the German Act Against Restraints of Competition (GWB) as amended). If a procurement violation is found in the appeals proceedings, the bidder will, in the future, only be able to claim damages in the civil courts if the contract has already been awarded.
Amendment to the BHO
Section 55 of the Federal Budget Code (BHO) now explicitly stipulates that direct awards up to a contract value of EUR 50,000 (excluding VAT) are permissible. This entails, among other things, an increase in the threshold for mandatory consultation of the competition register from EUR 30,000 to EUR 50,000. Furthermore, federal contracting authorities are no longer limited to open tendering or restricted tendering with a call for competition, but can also choose negotiated procedures for supplies and services or direct award for construction work, each with a call for competition or a public notice inviting tenders.