abante files a law­suit regard­ing the prac­tice of award­ing con­tracts below the EU thresh­olds in North Rhine-West­phalia

Fun­da­men­tal legal ques­tions on trans­paren­cy and equal treat­ment pend­ing before the Region­al Court of Cologne (Ref. 5 O 29/2026)

Leipzig/Munich, Feb­ru­ary 12, 2026. abante Recht­san­walts­ge­sellschaft mbH & Co. KG has brought an action against the City of Cologne before the Region­al Court of Cologne. The pro­ceed­ings are being con­duct­ed there under file num­ber 5 O 29/2026.

The back­ground to this is the legal sit­u­a­tion in North Rhine-West­phalia, which has been in force since Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, accord­ing to which munic­i­pal­i­ties can waive the enact­ment of statutes reg­u­lat­ing the award of con­tracts below the EU thresh­olds in accor­dance with Sec­tion 75a (2) GO NRW. The City of Cologne is one of the munic­i­pal­i­ties mak­ing use of this option.

The sub­ject of the action is the ques­tion of the pro­ce­dur­al and sub­stan­tive legal stan­dards accord­ing to which pub­lic con­tract­ing author­i­ties in North Rhine-West­phalia — and pos­si­bly in oth­er fed­er­al states — award con­tracts below the EU thresh­olds if they opt for an exten­sive exemp­tion from for­mal pro­cure­ment rules in the sub-thresh­old area. Specif­i­cal­ly, this con­cerns the judi­cial clar­i­fi­ca­tion of whether and to what extent pub­lic con­tract­ing author­i­ties are oblig­ed to define and announce cer­tain pro­ce­dures and cri­te­ria in advance in abstract terms when award­ing con­tracts for legal ser­vices up to a net con­tract val­ue of EUR 750,000.

The plain­tiff is itself affect­ed in its own rights and eco­nom­ic inter­ests by the com­pre­hen­sive waiv­er of reg­u­la­tion, which it con­sid­ers to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, and there­fore seeks in par­tic­u­lar infor­ma­tion about the pro­ce­dure and cri­te­ria for award­ing cor­re­spond­ing legal ser­vices as well as the omis­sion of awards with­out pri­or deter­mi­na­tion and dis­clo­sure of cor­re­spond­ing stan­dards. In addi­tion, it is to be estab­lished that if there is an inten­tion to pro­cure, there is an oblig­a­tion to fol­low pre­vi­ous­ly announced pro­ce­dur­al rules and that claims for dam­ages can be con­sid­ered in the event of a fail­ure to dis­close.

The back­ground to this is the change in the legal sit­u­a­tion and pro­cure­ment prac­tice in North Rhine-West­phalia since Jan­u­ary 1, 2026, accord­ing to which munic­i­pal­i­ties can dis­pense with abstract­ly defined and pub­lished pro­ce­dures and cri­te­ria in the area below the EU thresh­olds. The pro­ce­dure con­cerns fun­da­men­tal ques­tions regard­ing the orga­ni­za­tion of munic­i­pal pro­cure­ment prac­tice in North Rhine-West­phalia and could become sig­nif­i­cant beyond the state if com­pa­ra­ble reg­u­la­tions are intro­duced or applied in oth­er fed­er­al states.

Down­load the press release: aban­tePM law­suit udS reform in NRW.2.2026