Parallel Tender in Public Procurement Law 2026

Parallel tender: the simultaneous tendering of several alternative solutions for the same procurement task – admissibility and requirements.

Definition: A parallel tender exists when a public contracting authority simultaneously tenders several alternative specifications for the same procurement task in order to compare different technical or conceptual approaches and decide on a solution only after evaluating the bids.

Last updated: January 2026 · Legal basis: BVergG 2018, VOB/A, VgV, Directive 2014/24/EU

Concept and distinction

A parallel tender is a special form of tender in which the contracting authority deliberately leaves open which technical solution it ultimately wishes to procure and instead puts several variants out to competition at the same time. It must be distinguished from the classic variant bid scenario: with a variant bid, the contracting authority tenders a main service and optionally allows alternative offers. With a parallel tender, several independent solutions are the subject of the procedure from the outset.

Practical use cases include, for example, the simultaneous tendering of a steel bridge and a concrete bridge in order to choose the more economical variant after the bids have been received, or the tendering of conventional and innovative energy generation plants.

Admissibility under procurement law

A parallel tender is in principle permissible under procurement law, provided that the requirements of transparency and equal treatment are observed. The contracting authority must clearly communicate in the procurement documents that several variants are being tendered and must provide separate, complete specifications and uniform award criteria for each variant. Bidders must be able to submit separate bids for each variant.

A parallel tender becomes problematic if the award criteria between the variants are not comparable or if the contracting authority does not provide a clear method for how it will ultimately decide between the variants. In this case, there is a risk of a breach of the principle of transparency.

Difference from variant tenders and variant bids

Feature	Parallel tender	Variant tender	Variant bid
Who defines the alternatives?	Contracting authority	Contracting authority	Bidder
Main service present?	No	No	Yes
Number of solutions	Several defined	Several defined	Unlimited (by bidder)

Practical requirements

For a legally secure parallel tender, the following points must be observed:

Separate, complete specifications for each variant
Uniform deadline for all variants
Clear rules for the cross-procedural decision
Documentation of the selection decision between the variants

Related terms

FAQ

May a bidder submit a bid for only one of the parallel variants? Yes, provided that the contracting authority does not expressly require bids to be submitted for all variants simultaneously.

Must the contracting authority inform all bidders for which variant the contract is awarded? Yes. The award decision and its reasoning must be communicated to all bidders.

Is a parallel tender permissible if only one variant is to be awarded? Yes, this is in fact the typical use case: the contracting authority tenders several variants in order to select the most economical one and then awards only one contract.

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