Modernization of procurement law

Authors: Johannes Hartlieb, Alexander Gimona

With the draft of the Procurement Law Act 2026, Austrian procurement law is to be comprehensively modernized. The aim is a structural, technological, and substantive adaptation of the Federal Procurement Act 2018 (BVergG 2018) and the accompanying substantive laws to EU requirements, the digitalization of the procurement system, as well as a simplification of legal protection. The draft was sent for review on October 10th, 2025; comments can be submitted until November 7th, 2025.

The draft introduces numerous innovations – from digital procedures (eForms) to a revised threshold regime and changes regarding suitability evidence, flat fees, self-cleaning, and framework agreements.

Why does the reform attract attention? It affects companies, contracting authorities, and procurement bodies alike, as it touches on almost all aspects of public procurement. Below, we provide you with an overview of the most relevant innovations in the draft.

1. Starting point and objective of the reform

The reform initiative addresses several aspects of the government program: the transfer of the Threshold Values Ordinance into permanent law, the implementation of EU Implementing Regulation 2019/1780 (eForms), the adaptation to recent ECJ and Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) rulings, particularly regarding framework agreements and legal protection, as well as the strengthening of transparency, sustainability, and strategic procurement.The reform initiative addresses several aspects of the government program: the transfer of the Threshold Values Ordinance into permanent law, the implementation of EU Implementing Regulation 2019/1780 (eForms), the adaptation to recent ECJ and Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (VwGH) rulings, particularly regarding framework agreements and legal protection, as well as the strengthening of transparency, sustainability, and strategic procurement.

In addition to the integration of technical innovations (metadata, core data sources, machine-readable standard forms), the amendment aims at simplifying procedures, harmonizing announcements at both EU and national level, and embedding ecological criteria in procurement.

2. Threshold values: transfer into permanent law

A key focus of the amendment concerns the increase and indefinite establishment of the threshold values.

With the draft, the Threshold Values Ordinance 2025 is permanently integrated into the Federal Procurement Act (BVergG). The values in the sub-threshold range are, in part, being significantly increased:

Construction contracts can be awarded in a restricted procedure without prior notice up to €2 million (previously €300,000).
Direct awards are permitted for construction contracts up to €200,000, and for supply and service contracts up to €150,000.

In doing so, the legislator responds to economic conditions and aims to facilitate participation, particularly for SMEs. The permanent anchoring also provides legal certainty and eliminates the need for annual extension ordinances.

3. Digitalization and eForms

With the mandatory introduction of the eForms system, the draft implements EU law requirements. Notices and notifications are henceforth to be published electronically using standardized forms.

Metadata and core data sources must be provided in open, machine-readable formats. Contracting authorities will thereby be obliged to use uniform data structures. This increases both the transparency and the verifiability of procurement procedures. As a result, national and European notice obligations will be largely synchronized.

4. Sustainability

The new Procurement Law Act expressly obliges public contracting authorities to take environmental justice and sustainability into account in the procurement procedure. This general obligation is supplemented by a number of special provisions, which stipulate that quality‑related, environmentally sound, social, or innovation‑related criteria must be considered for specific types of services (in particular building cleaning, security, and construction services exceeding €1.5 million).

In addition, new requirements for the energy efficiency of goods in the above-threshold range are being introduced.

Thus, sustainability aspects, which were previously at the discretion of the contracting authority, are now largely made mandatory.

5. Simplification of the flat fee system

The starting point for this change is the ECJ ruling EPIC Financial Consulting (C-274/21, C-275/21), which found the Austrian flat fee system to be incompatible with EU law. The draft therefore provides for a complete restructuring of the fee regulation in procurement-specific legal protection. In the future, the fee will depend exclusively on the estimated contract value, based on predefined fee categories.

This aims to ensure fee transparency in advance and eliminates the previously complex calculation. At the same time, the system will be designed to comply with EU and constitutional law.

The simplification benefits not only applicants and contracting authorities, but also the Federal Administrative Court, which has frequently dealt with disputes over fee amounts.

6. Framework agreements and legal certainty

The case law of the ECJ (C‑216/17, Autorità Garante della Concorrenza) and the Austrian Supreme Administrative Court (Ra 2021/04/0005) prompted a shift in the understanding of framework agreements.

The conclusion of a framework agreement is now expressly considered an award decision, which means that review mechanisms also apply to these procedures.

This clarification strengthens legal certainty and removes the previous uncertainty regarding the contestability of such decisions.

7. Outlook

The draft pursues an ambitious goal: the modernization of public procurement law through digitalization, simplification, and sustainable management of public contracts.

The main points of the draft, in particular the reorganization of flat fees and the raising of threshold values, mark a significant step toward practical manageability and harmonization required under EU law.

Whether the planned measures will remain unchanged in the review phase will largely depend on feedback from practice. What is certain is that with the Procurement Law Act 2026, Austrian procurement law will undergo the most comprehensive adjustment since 2018.

More on this – and why the new approaches to self-cleaning and reliability assessment, despite promising developments, should also be viewed critically – can be found in a separate contribution.

Disclaimer

This article is for general information only and does not replace legal advice. Haslinger / Nagele Rechtsanwälte GmbH assumes no liability for the content and correctness of this article.