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The planned amendment to the
Austrian Public Procurement Act 2018 (Bundesvergabegesetz – BVergG 2018),
Austrian Public Concession Procurement Act 2018 (Bundesvergabegesetz Konzessionen 2018 – BvergGKonz 2018),
Austrian Public Procurement Act for Defence and Security (Bundesvergabegesetz Verteidigung und Sicherheit 2012 – BVergGVS 2012),
Federal Act on the Establishment of the Company “Familie & Beruf Management GmbH (Bundesgesetz über die Errichtung der Gesellschaft „Familie & Beruf Management GmbH“)
Road Vehicle Procurement Act (Straßenfahrzeug Beschaffungsgesetz)
(together the Public Procurement Act 2026)
was passed by the Council of Ministers in Austria on 18 November 2025 and adopted by the National Council on 11 December 2025.
The Public Procurement Act 2026 introduces numerous changes that are particularly important for companies. Below, we provide an overview of the key changes, in particular the amendments to the BVergG 2018:
A key component of the amendements is the revision of the thresholds, particularly in the sub-threshold area. The value limits, which were previously only temporarily raised by regulations, are now to be permanently established by law. Significant changes arise, for example, in direct award and construction contracts:
Direct award: Works contracts up to EUR 200,000 and supply and service contracts up to EUR 143,000 can be awarded directly in future.
Works contracts up to a value of EUR 2 million can be awarded in restricted procedures without prior publication. This represents a significant increase, especially compared to the previous threshold of EUR 300,000.
This replaces the previous practice of extending the thresholds every one to two years with a permanent regulation. For contracting authorities, this means above all greater planning security and less effort in coordination, as the regular adjustments to the thresholds will no longer be necessary.
Despite the expanded possibilities in the area of direct awards, the principle of competition remains relevant. For contracts worth EUR 50,000 or more, contracting authorities are obliged to prove that they have obtained at least three comparative offers or price quotations, unless there are objective reasons against doing so. This newly introduced three-offer principle is intended to ensure that a basic level of price transparency and market analysis is guaranteed even in simplified procedures. In practice, this means an additional documentation obligation for contracting authorities. At the same time, the permanent increase in the thresholds makes things easier, as smaller procurements can be handled more quickly and easily without complex procedures – an advantage that is particularly appreciated by municipalities and other decentralised authorities.
The amendment fully integrates eForms into national procurement procedures. In future, tenders and notices must be issued using standardised electronic forms (also in the sub-threshold area) in order to implement the EU requirements ("digital by default") and reduce the workload for contracting authorities.
Transparency will also be enhanced: contracts worth EUR 50,000 or more must be published in future. Procurement data is to be made available as open data and certain data must be available in machine-readable form for at least five years. These measures are intended to promote digital transparency and improve market access for businesses.
The new Public Procurement Act 2026 places greater emphasis on environmental justice and sustainabilityand obliges contracting authorities to take these issues into account.
In addition, the amendment stipulates that for certain types of services – such as special services directly related to individuals in the health and social sector, building cleaning or certain construction services – quality-related, environmentally friendly, sustainable, social and innovation-related criteria as well as aspects promoting the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises must be taken into account.
In the upper threshold range (Oberschwellenbereich), new requirements for the energy efficiency of goods are also being introduced.
Sustainability aspects, which were previously at the discretion of the contracting authorities, are now mandatory in many areas. The new eForms increase transparency by requiring mandatory information on environmental criteria, social objectives and innovative procedures.
Under the previous legal situation, bidders were required to prove their suitability by the end of the application deadline in two-stage procedures and by the opening of tenders in open procedures. In practice, however, this often led to uncertainty, which is why companies usually prepared all the necessary evidence in advance in order to avoid the risk of being excluded from the procurement procedure.
The amendment provides clarity here and specifies the regulations on suitability, exclusion and evidence. Suitability in terms of reliability and performance must now be demonstrated by the following dates at the latest:
at the latest by the expiry of the deadline set for the submission or completion of evidence in accordance with Section 80(3),
at the latest at the time of access by the contracting authority to a database in accordance with Section 80(5), or
at the latest by the expiry of the deadline set for remedying deficiencies relating to suitability.
A new option is that suitability in single-stage procedures must be demonstrated at the latest by the time the contract is awarded, which means that the relevant point in time has been moved to the last step of the award procedure.
The planned amendment provides for the harmonisation of the grounds for exclusion in the federal procurement acts. The following points have been added or specified in more detail:
Expansion of criminal offences: Final convictions pursuant to Section 78 para 1 no 1 BVergG 2018 and Section 249 para 1 no 1 BVergG 2018 now include additional offences such as anti-competitive agreements, betrayal of state secrets and abuse of official authority.
Exclusion in the case of foreign decisions: Contractors must be excluded if the contracting authority learns of a conviction by final judgement from another EEA country that prohibits participation in procurement procedures.
The draft divides the exclusion grounds due to anti-competitive agreements into two categories: (i) exclusion following a conviction by final judgement and (ii) exclusion in the event of plausible indications, with different requirements for self-cleaning.
Contractors who have not been convicted by a final judgment do not have to commit to compensating for damages in order to restore their professional reliability. However, the draft requires active cooperation with the contracting authority to clarify the damage.
In future, there will be no standstill period "if a service is to be awarded on the basis of a framework agreement or a dynamic procurement system".
The new provisions on framework agreements are interesting: in future, the conclusion of a framework agreement will also be considered as an award. The ranking of several framework agreement partners can be challenged separately.
In future, the revocation of a procurement procedure must be justified.
The statutory fee system will be simplified.
Announcements at Union level: In future, there will be increased transparency requirements for contracting authorities in the case of contracts awarded on the basis of framework agreements, if their contract value reaches EUR 50,000 .
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The amendment provides important clarification of existing practice and ensures greater legal certainty. The new regulations are to be welcomed in terms of transparency and traceability, even if the legislator had only limited scope for action here.
Although this is not a major coup or a fundamental redesign, the changes do make practice easier in some respects. The suitability requirements are clarified and the new deadlines create more flexibility for companies without fundamentally changing the existing procurement procedures.
The next step is for the bill to be debated in the Federal Council, probably before Christmas. After further consultation with the federal states, the federal acts are expected to come into force in spring 2026, probably before the Austrian Threshold Regulation expires.
Please note: This blog is for general information purposes only and in no way constitutes legal advice from Binder Grösswang Rechtsanwälte GmbH. The blog cannot replace individual legal advice. Binder Grösswang Rechtsanwälte GmbH accepts no liability of any kind for the content and accuracy of the blog.