What does public procurement law regulate?
Public contracts are an important economic factor. Public authorities request services, construction work and goods from almost all economic sectors on a large scale. Modern public procurement law ensures the fair, efficient and sustainable award of public contracts through transparent award procedures. It regulates how public contracting authorities must proceed when purchasing supplies, works and services or awarding concessions.
The regulations on award procedures ensure competition, transparency and equal treatment. The aim is to achieve the best price-performance ratio on the market in public procurement.
Why did the BMWi reform public procurement law?
The starting 
point for the reform of public procurement law are three new EU procurement directives. They lay down uniform requirements throughout Europe for the entire procurement process (“single-rule-book”). Affected are procurement procedures with high contract values (awards above the so-called EU thresholds).
The new directives have been transposed into German law since April 2016.
The reform has made the rules for awarding public contracts simpler, more flexible and more user-friendly. At the same time, public procurement has become more social, ecological and innovative (strategic procurement).