The contract has to be awarded to the most economic bid or offer. This includes the consideration of the price because the award criterion of the most economic bid/offer is aiming at an optimum price-performance ratio. According to case law the price can be the only criteria for awarding a contract if the contracting authority failed to define other criteria in the procurement documents. Following Directive 2014/24/EU, paragraph 3 of section 97 GWB provides that the aspects of quality, innovation as well as social and environmental aspects have to be taken into account when awarding a contract. However, under paragraph 1 of section 127 GWB the consideration of those aspects for the determination of the most economic offer is not mandatory. In fact, contracting authorities can establish award criteria at their discretion provided that they are linked to the subject-matter of the procurement contract. The award criteria and their weighting have to be set out in the contract notice or in the procurement documents.

The contracting authority has to request clarification from a bidder if his bid appears to be abnormally low. If this clarification does not lead to a satisfactory result, i.e. an economic explanation for the offered low price, the contracting authority can exclude the bid, following paragraph 3 of section 60 VgV.

If the contracting authority does not declare the submission of alternative bids as required or permitted, their submission is not admissible. If they are admitted, an alternative bid has to be linked to the subject-matter of the procurement contract. In any case, submitted alternative bids have to be assessed in the same way as main bids. In this perspective, award criteria have to be established in a manner that they are applicable to both main bids and alternative bids. Additionally, the contracting authority has to set out minimum requirements for alternative bids in the procurement documents and establish in what manner they have to be submitted.