Require­ments for deliv­ery con­di­tions and quan­ti­ty struc­tures for frame­work agree­ments

The deci­sion of the High­er Region­al Court of Karl­sruhe dat­ed July 31, 2025 (Ref.: 15 Verg 9/25) deals with cen­tral pit­falls in frame­work agree­ments and the exclu­sion due to inad­mis­si­ble changes to the offer. The deci­sion pro­vides impor­tant clar­i­fi­ca­tions on the inter­pre­ta­tion of deliv­ery con­di­tions (“free place of use”) as well as on the require­ments for the spec­i­fi­ca­tion of min­i­mum and max­i­mum quan­ti­ties.

Our video dis­cussing the judg­ment:

Facts: The pit­falls of deliv­ery con­di­tions for bulk goods

A local author­i­ty issued a Europe-wide invi­ta­tion to ten­der for the sup­ply of clean­ing and hygiene prod­ucts as a frame­work agree­ment over two years. The spec­i­fi­ca­tions required the con­di­tion “free point of use”, which includ­ed deliv­ery “to the respec­tive work­place or to the stor­age loca­tion spec­i­fied by the point of use”.

One bid­der sub­mit­ted a logis­tics con­cept and lat­er explained when asked that, although deliv­ery was free of charge, it would always be deliv­ered “behind the first door”. Deliv­ery “free to point of use” was only pos­si­ble via an option­al addi­tion­al ser­vice.

The con­tract­ing author­i­ty exclud­ed the bid­der’s offer as it con­sid­ered the deliv­ery “behind the first door” to be an inad­mis­si­ble amend­ment to the ten­der doc­u­ments ($\S$ 57 Para. 1 No. 4 VgV). The bid­der com­plained about the exclu­sion and also object­ed to the fact that the frame­work agree­ment did not con­tain any min­i­mum pur­chase quan­ti­ties and that the max­i­mum quan­ti­ty spec­i­fi­ca­tion was non-trans­par­ent.

Key point of the deci­sion: Inter­pre­ta­tion and frame­work agree­ments

The Karl­sruhe High­er Region­al Court reject­ed the bid­der’s imme­di­ate appeal on all key points.

1. exclu­sion due to devi­a­tion: “Behind the first door” is not “free place of use”

Any ten­der that devi­ates from the manda­to­ry require­ments of the ten­der doc­u­ments must be exclud­ed in order to ensure fair com­pe­ti­tion.

Inter­pre­ta­tion of the ten­der: The inter­pre­ta­tion is made in good faith from the per­spec­tive of an objec­tive third par­ty in the posi­tion of the award­ing author­i­ty.

Devi­a­tion is a rea­son for exclu­sion: The dec­la­ra­tion to deliv­er “always behind the first door” did not cor­re­spond to the manda­to­ry require­ment of deliv­ery “free at place of use”.

Lim­its of the clar­i­fi­ca­tion: The clar­i­fi­ca­tion serves to clar­i­fy, not to sub­se­quent­ly amend the ten­der. The bid­der’s expla­na­tions led pre­cise­ly to the con­clu­sion that the bid was not com­pli­ant, which is why the exclu­sion was law­ful.

2. require­ments for quan­ti­ties in frame­work agree­ments

The OLG found the com­plaints regard­ing the quan­ti­ties to be mate­ri­al­ly unfound­ed.

Max­i­mum quan­ti­ty is suf­fi­cient: In the case of a frame­work agree­ment, the con­tract­ing author­i­ty must state both the esti­mat­ed quan­ti­ty and a max­i­mum quan­ti­ty in the con­tract notice and/or the ten­der doc­u­ments. Spec­i­fy­ing the esti­mat­ed quan­ti­ty as the max­i­mum quan­ti­ty is in com­pli­ance with pro­cure­ment law.

Rel­a­tiviza­tion is per­mis­si­ble: The reser­va­tion to increase or reduce indi­vid­ual items does not inad­mis­si­bly rel­a­tivize the max­i­mum quan­ti­ty as long as this only con­cerns small shifts in quan­ti­ty and does not rep­re­sent a sig­nif­i­cant change to the over­all con­tract.

No min­i­mum pur­chase quan­ti­ty required: In the case of bulk goods (here: clean­ing and hygiene arti­cles), which can be pro­cured in any quan­ti­ty at any time and sold else­where, there is no oblig­a­tion to spec­i­fy a min­i­mum pur­chase quan­ti­ty.

Tips for pub­lic clients: Cre­ate clar­i­ty

Par­tic­u­lar­ly in the case of com­plex logis­tics require­ments, the pub­lic sec­tor must cre­ate clar­i­ty and apply strict stan­dards to the inter­pre­ta­tion of ten­ders.

Clear­ly define manda­to­ry require­ments: Must-have require­ments such as “free point of use” must be explained in detail in the ser­vice descrip­tion. The require­ment must be pre­cise­ly tai­lored to the actu­al need (e.g. deliv­ery to the indi­vid­ual office).

Avoid inter­pre­ta­tion: The award­ing author­i­ty may only inter­pret ten­ders from the per­spec­tive of an objec­tive recip­i­ent. Devi­at­ing for­mu­la­tions in the ten­der must con­sis­tent­ly lead to exclu­sion in order to ensure fair com­pe­ti­tion.

Quan­ti­ty spec­i­fi­ca­tions for frame­work agree­ments: Always spec­i­fy a max­i­mum quan­ti­ty of the callable ser­vice, as the frame­work agree­ment los­es its effect once this has been reached. In the case of bulk goods, it is per­mis­si­ble to spec­i­fy the esti­mat­ed quan­ti­ty as the max­i­mum quan­ti­ty.

Flex­i­bil­i­ty with­out min­i­mum quan­ti­ty: You do not have to guar­an­tee a min­i­mum pur­chase quan­ti­ty for bulk goods. Minor reser­va­tions to shift quan­ti­ty items are per­mit­ted as long as they do not sig­nif­i­cant­ly change the over­all scope.

Tips for bid­ders and appli­cants: Care­ful sub­mis­sion of ten­ders

The prin­ci­ple of utmost care applies to bid­ders. Any devi­a­tion from the manda­to­ry require­ments of the spec­i­fi­ca­tions may result in exclu­sion.

Absolute con­for­mi­ty with manda­to­ry require­ments: Ensure that your offer ful­fills every manda­to­ry require­ment (e.g. deliv­ery con­di­tion) with­out restric­tion. Even the word­ing “in prin­ci­ple” in con­nec­tion with a devi­at­ing stan­dard deliv­ery can lead to exclu­sion.

Lim­its of clar­i­fi­ca­tion: If the award­ing author­i­ty requests clar­i­fi­ca­tion, your expla­na­tions serve to clar­i­fy, not to sub­se­quent­ly amend the ten­der. If your clar­i­fi­ca­tion con­firms the non-con­for­mi­ty, exclu­sion is unavoid­able.

Cal­cu­late the min­i­mum quan­ti­ty risk: Bear in mind that the award­ing author­i­ty does not have to guar­an­tee a min­i­mum pur­chase quan­ti­ty for bulk goods. Cal­cu­late the risk that the esti­mat­ed quan­ti­ties will not be called up in full.