The Bundeskartellamt starts operating the Competition Register. Authorities required to communicate data and public contracting entities can now register.

The national Competition Register for Public Procurement will provide public contracting authorities, sector contracting entities and concession grantors with information to assess whether a company must or can be excluded from a public procurement procedure for having committed economic offences. Contracting entities, which to date usually have to rely on the information provided by the companies themselves, will in the future be able to consult the Competition Register to objectively assess whether grounds for exclusion exist. The Competition Register thus helps to combat white-collar crime and increases compliance in business.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “The Competition Register is the first fully digitised state register in Germany. Authorities reporting offences committed by companies will do so exclusively in a digital form. More than 30,000 contracting entities in Germany will obtain information by digital means only. This makes the Competition Register an important and progressive component in the digitalisation of public administration. In view of the sensitive data relating to serious economic offences committed by companies which are stored centrally in the register, data security is a top priority. By consulting the Competition Register, public contracting entities will in the future be able to find out which companies must or can be excluded from the procurement procedure on account of their serious infringements. We will now start registering the authorities with which we work together. These are, on the one hand, the bodies informing us of the offences committed by companies, such as public prosecution offices or customs and excise authorities, and, on the other hand, approximately 30,000 public bodies awarding contracts and concessions in Germany.”

Following the entry into force of the German Competition Register Act (WRegG) in July 2017, the Bundeskartellamt appointed a project team to prepare for the launch of the Competition Register. The operation of the Competition Register is a complex project involving a large number of different bodies. The register is being set up as part of the federal IT consolidation process and at a time of digital transformation in Germany’s administration.

Roughly 30,000 contracting entities on the three levels of government, i.e. the Federation, Länder and municipalities, will be able to consult the fully electronic register on information about the bidder which, after the assessment of the bids received in a procurement procedure, is to be awarded the contract. Public prosecution offices and other authorities will also electronically provide information on relevant infringements. Protecting the data saved in the Competition Register is a key priority in this context.

In setting up the register the Bundeskartellamt worked closely with IT service providers and other external bodies, including the judiciary and financial administration, municipal umbrella associations, the federal information technology centre ITZBund and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). Owing to the high level of confidentiality required for the data stored in the Competition Register, the Bundeskartellamt also worked closely with the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) when setting up the register.

In technical terms, the Bundeskartellamt uses the tried and tested system components of the Federation and the Länder as well as services provided by ITZBund. In order to ensure that external bodies can be easily connected via interfaces, it was important to use standard components from which it can most likely be assumed that external bodies also use such components themselves. The public prosecution offices will communicate their data via an interface specifically set up for this purpose. To this end the Bundeskartellamt will use the electronic court and administration mailbox (EGVP) and the communication infrastructure XJustiz.

For registering the authorities communicating data and public contracting entities and for managing various users, the Bundeskartellamt will use the identity management system SAFE (Secure Access to Federated e-Justice/e-Government) already used for judiciary procedures, and for transmitting registration applications the authority will use the electronic mailbox for German public authorities (beBPO), which is a key component of electronic communication between authorities as set out in the e-government laws of the Federation and the Länder. A key element of the Competition Register IT system is its connection to the federal electronic file system (E-Akte Bund), which makes it the very first specialised system at federal level to be connected to the federal electronic file system.

The Competition Register will be launched starting with the registration of public bodies.

After successful registration the authorities communicating data will be able to use the online platform to communicate data electronically. The public prosecution offices will use an electronic interface specifically set up for communicating data.
After successful registration the approx. 30,000 contracting entities at federal, Länder and municipal level will be able to use the online platform to electronically request information on companies in the context of public procurement procedures. Via the online platform the registry authority will then electronically inform the contracting entity about whether or not data have been entered in the Competition Register. If an entry exists, the registry authority will transfer the data stored in the Competition Register via the online platform.

The Act on the Establishment and Operation of a Register for the Protection of Competition for Public Contracts and Concessions (WRegG) entered into force on 29 July 2017 and was amended by the 10th Amendment to the German Competition Act, which entered into force on 19 January 2021 (for more information and links to the relevant legal bases please visit the Bundeskartellamt´s website).

Further information on registration:

Only authorities that are obliged to communicate data under the German Competition Register Act (WRegG) or public contracting authorities, sector contracting entities and concession grantors authorised or obliged to consult the register under the German Competition Register Act can register.

The Bundeskartellamt will successively approach various groups of contracting entities for registration so that the applications can be processed as quickly as possible in a combined manner.

Details will be published on the Bundeskartellamt’s website.

In order to register, the authorities communicating data and contracting entities have to use forms available on the Bundeskartellamt’s website where registration guidelines and information on user management are also available.

The obligation to communicate data or consult the register is not yet applicable. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy will publish in the Federal Gazette the date from which the relevant authorities’ obligation to communicate data and the public contracting entities’ obligation to consult the register will become applicable. Public contracting entities will be obliged to consult the register six months after this publication