Lot-Based Procurement 2026 – Division into Lots in Public Procurement

Lot-based procurement: Public contracts are divided into lots to foster competition and enable SME access. Legal basis & practice.

Definition: Lot-based procurement refers to the division of a public contract into several independently tenderable and separately awardable lots (specialist and/or partial lots) in order to strengthen competition and enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to participate.

Last updated: January 2026 · Legal status: Art. 46 Directive 2014/24/EU, § 97 (4) GWB, § 30 VgV, § 5 EU section VOB/A, §§ 57–59 BVergG 2018

What is lot-based procurement?

Lot-based procurement is the default principle required by procurement law: public contracting authorities should divide contracts into lots in order to intensify competition and give smaller companies too a realistic chance of being awarded the contract. The requirement to divide into lots is one of the strongest mechanisms for promoting SMEs in public procurement. The statutory obligation to divide into lots is set out at European level in Art. 46 Directive 2014/24/EU and is implemented in Germany by § 97 (4) GWB.

The division is made either qualitatively (by service areas = specialist lots) or quantitatively (by quantity, region or period = partial lots), or by combining both approaches.

Legal basis and obligation to justify

The principle of "award in lots" is mandatory law, from which the contracting authority may only deviate with objective reasons. If a contracting authority decides against dividing into lots, it must give comprehensible reasons in the procurement file. Recognised reasons for awarding the contract as a whole are:

Technical indivisibility of the service (e.g. highly integrated system solutions)
Disproportionate coordination effort if divided into lots
Threat to economic efficiency or quality of performance
Security-related reasons that require a single contractor

Mere convenience or the wish to simplify procurement administration does not justify a single overall award.

Types of division into lots

Specialist lots

Specialist lots divide a contract by service areas or trades. A classic example is a construction project in which structural works, electrical installation, heating/ventilation/sanitary and interior fit-out are tendered as separate specialist lots. Each specialist lot typically requires specific know-how and therefore addresses different bidder pools.

Partial lots

Partial lots divide identical services quantitatively, e.g. by region (route bundles in local public transport), by period (cleaning services Q1–Q4) or by quantity (supply of office materials in certain volumes). Partial lots in particular enable regional companies to participate, which would not have the necessary capacity for the overall contract.

Cross-lot award and combination rules

Contracting authorities may specify whether and how lots may be combined and whether there are caps on the number of lots a bidder can win. This flexibility allows the contracting authority to:

Capture synergies through overall bids (combination bids)
Prevent concentration of the award on a single bidder (maximum number of lots)
Use a lot order in the evaluation to favour certain combinations

Such rules must be set out transparently in the contract notice and the procurement documents.

Electronic handling of lot-based procurements

Modern procurement platforms support lot-based handling by enabling bidders to submit bids for individual or all lots and to upload separate price sheets and evidence per lot. Contracting authorities can open, examine and evaluate bids by lot and award contracts separately per lot.

Procurement-law specifics

If several lots of a contract together exceed the EU thresholds, the procurement must be announced EU-wide, even if individual lots taken in isolation lie below the thresholds (calculation of overall contract value under § 3 VgV).

FAQ

Must each specialist lot be announced separately? No. It is possible to tender all specialist lots in a single notice. Depending on the design, bidders can then bid on individual or multiple lots.

Can a bidder bid on all lots and win them all? In principle, yes, provided the contracting authority has not set a lot restriction. In practice, however, contracting authorities frequently impose maximum numbers.

What applies if the contracting authority does not divide into lots without giving reasons? This may constitute a breach of procurement law, which can be challenged by passed-over bidders before the procurement review body.

Must lots always be capable of being performed independently? Yes. Each lot must in principle be designed so that it can be performed independently, even if the contracting authority ultimately awards several lots to the same bidder.

Last updated: January 2026 All information without guarantee. For legally binding advice, please consult a law firm specialising in procurement law.