Hankintamenettelyt ja kynnysarvot/EN

Suomeksi

The Procurement Act requires different, closely regulated procurement procedures once different thresholds are exceeded — the applicable procedure and its formal requirements depend on both the value and the nature of the procurement.

Avainkohdat

• Mistä on kyse: The value of the procurement determines whether the rules on procedures exceeding the EU threshold or the national procedures apply, and different procurement procedures apply under each.
• Miksi sillä on kaupallista merkitystä: Choosing the wrong procedure, or miscalculating the threshold (e.g. artificially splitting a procurement to fall below a threshold), is one of the most common grounds for procurement appeals.
• Mikä menee useimmin pieleen: The EU thresholds are revised regularly every two years (most recently on 1 January 2026) — using an outdated threshold when planning a procurement is a completely avoidable but still common mistake.

Thresholds from 1 January 2026

The EU thresholds were updated on 1 January 2026:

• supplies and services procured by central government authorities: EUR 140,000;
• supplies and services procured by other contracting authorities (municipalities, wellbeing services counties): EUR 216,000;
• supplies and services in the special sectors (including water, energy, transport and postal services): EUR 432,000; and
• works contracts and concession contracts: EUR 5,404,000.

The basis for the EU thresholds is section 26 of the Procurement Act, under which the EU thresholds derive from the Public Procurement Directive (2014/24/EU) and the Concessions Directive (2014/23/EU); the European Commission revises the thresholds by regulation every two years, and the revised values automatically replace the euro amounts stated in section 26(1). The thresholds set for the 2026–2027 period are based on Commission Delegated Regulations (EU) 2025/2152 (supplies, services and works contracts, Directive 2014/24/EU) and (EU) 2025/2151 (concession contracts, Directive 2014/23/EU).

Note: the EUR 432,000 threshold for the special sectors (water, energy, transport and postal services) falls under the separate Utilities Procurement Act (1398/2016), not under section 26 of this Act (1397/2016) — it should therefore not be confused with the general Procurement Act's thresholds, even though all four figures are listed together above.

These lower, separately provided national thresholds must be exceeded before the Procurement Act's competitive-tendering obligation applies at all.

National thresholds

The Procurement Act does not apply to procurements below the national thresholds, unless the EU thresholds or other special rules become applicable.

• EUR 60,000 – supply contracts, service contracts and design contests
• EUR 150,000 – works contracts
• EUR 400,000 – social and health services referred to in points 1–4 of Annex E
• EUR 300,000 – other special services referred to in points 5–15 of Annex E
• EUR 500,000 – concession contracts

Choice of procurement procedure

The most common procurement procedures are:

• Open procedure — anyone interested may submit a tender; there is no separate participation-request stage.
• Restricted procedure — a two-stage procedure: first requests to participate, from which the contracting authority selects the candidates who may then submit a tender.
• Negotiated procedure — permitted only where the conditions specifically laid down by law are met (e.g. particular complexity of the procurement), and it involves negotiating the content of tenders before the final tender.
• Competitive dialogue — used for particularly complex procurements where the contracting authority is unable to define the solution in detail in advance.
• Direct award (negotiated procedure without prior publication) — an exceptional procedure without competitive tendering; requires a ground expressly provided for by law (e.g. exclusive rights, extreme urgency, or that a prior procurement procedure produced no result).
• Innovation partnership — a procedure in which the contracting authority develops, together with one or more selected suppliers, an innovative supply, service or works contract not yet available on the market, and procures the resulting output within the same, unified procedure.
• Framework agreement — an arrangement between one or more contracting authorities and one or more suppliers establishing the prices, estimated quantities and other terms of procurement contracts to be awarded during a given period; in principle valid for no more than four years, longer only where the subject matter of the procurement justifiably requires it.
• Dynamic purchasing system — a fully electronic procurement procedure for standard procurements generally available on the market; the procedure is open throughout its duration to all suppliers meeting the qualification conditions, who may join the system at any time during its validity.

Käytännön huomio

The ground for direct award is interpreted narrowly in case law — it is not advisable to build a ground "just in case" without clear legal support, because an unjustified direct award is one of the few situations in which a procurement contract already concluded can be declared ineffective.

See also

• Fundamentals of Public Procurement and Its Interface with Competition Law
• Self-Correction and Appeals in Procurement Matters

Sources

Lainsäädäntö ja lähteet tarkistettu 6.9.2026.