The current procurement law offers public purchasers many opportunities to consider strategic aspects in the award procedure (see § 97 para.3 GWB). This must be in connection with the subject of the order. In this way, services that are conscious from an environmental, social and innovative point of view can be taken into account. The GWB and VgV specify the legal framework for the inclusion of these criteria at different stages of the awarding procedure, for instance in the terms of reference (see §§ 121 GWB, 31 para. 3 VgV), the award criteria (see §§ 127 GWB, 58 para. 2 sentence VgV) and the conditions of execution (see §§ 128 Abs.2 GWB, 61 VgV).

Contracting authorities may require a specific quality label as proof that the supply or service complies with the characteristics required in the specifications, provided that the conditions set out in § 34 para. 2 to 5 VgV are met.