Procurement routes and thresholds

Open tendering is the default. It is always available to the client. The other routes are exceptions, permissible only where the VOB/A allows them.

The admissibility conditions were recast at the start of 2026. The figures are net of tax.

Two observations stand out.

The increase is substantial. The threshold for the negotiated procedure has risen tenfold. A considerable share of construction procurement thereby moves out of formal procedure.

The harmonisation is new. The €150,000 figure for restricted tendering without a prior call previously applied only to civil engineering trades and now applies to all.

The increase follows a decision to introduce a uniform direct award threshold across federal procurement from 2026, and an intention to treat construction procurement and supplies and services procurement alike. Behind it lay an intention to treat construction procurement in line with supplies and services.

A peculiarity of German procurement law regularly causes confusion, and it is purely terminological. The above- and below-threshold regimes use different names for the same thing.

The same route is meant. Anyone working on one procedure for construction works and another for design services therefore meets two names for the same thing.

The distinction is not without consequence: the admissibility conditions and thresholds of the two bodies of rules do not coincide. Transferring one's figures to the other means choosing an impermissible route.

The same caution applies to design services generally: they are services and do not fall under the VOB/A. The article on above and below EU thresholds covers the classification.

Below the figures given, the exceptional routes are permissible without particular justification. Above them they remain so only where certain grounds exist.

Typical grounds for a negotiated procedure can be set out briefly. Each must be evidenced in the individual case and recorded on the procurement file.

Only one firm comes into consideration, for instance because of patent protection, particular experience or particular equipment.

A fresh tender promises no acceptable result after a previous procedure was cancelled.

Grounds of confidentiality require it.

A small item of work cannot be separated from a larger one already awarded without disadvantage.

The grounds are to be construed narrowly and recorded on the procurement file. An inadequately justified choice of route is open to challenge.

The figures given reflect the federal framework. The thresholds for individual routes are set by federal and state governments, and they can vary considerably by state.

A checking sequence follows that cannot be shortened. Each step presupposes the result of the one before it.

1. Estimate the contract value and compare it against the EU threshold.
2. Below threshold, identify the applicable state law, because it may set its own figures.
3. Check special rules, which may depart further still.

A point familiar from the other subjects in this field applies too: it happens that a state procurement act refers to a superseded edition of the VOB/A. The reference must then be checked rather than the current version assumed.

Higher thresholds mean fewer procedures and less effort. They also mean fewer tenderers per procurement.

For cost planning the middle row matters most. Procurement from three selected firms regularly produces a different price level than open tendering, and that effect belongs in the cost calculation.

Anyone pricing a project should therefore know how it will be procured. Benchmarks from openly tendered projects do not transfer readily to negotiated ones.

• The procurement procedure for construction works
• Above and below the EU thresholds
• The procurement acceleration act
• Suitability and self-declaration
• VOB/A: structure and sections