Prawo zamówień publicznych (PZP) — Poland's Public Procurement Act

Prawo zamówień publicznych, the Act of 11 September 2019, is the statute that governs public purchasing in Poland. It applies where a public contracting authority buys goods, services or works worth at least 170 000 zł net — a figure that rose from 130 000 zł on 1 January 2026. Almost every Polish tender notice cites this Act by article number, so knowing which articles bind the buyer is the difference between reading a notice and understanding it.

What the Act is

Ustawa z dnia 11 września 2019 r. – Prawo zamówień publicznych, shortened everywhere to PZP or Pzp, is the single statute governing public purchasing in Poland. It replaced the earlier procurement act and has applied to procedures launched since the start of 2021. Procedure types, the tender specification, bid security, price challenges and the appeal route all sit inside this one text, and Polish notices refer to it by bare article number — a notice that says podstawy wykluczenia z art. 108 assumes you can look art. 108 up.

Where the Act starts to bite

Art. 2 ust. 1 pkt 1 sets the entry point. The Act applies to classic contracts and design contests awarded by public contracting authorities whose value is equal to or exceeds a stated cash figure, calculated net of VAT.

Until the end of 2025 that figure was 130 000 zł. The ustawa z dnia 25 lipca 2025 r. o zmianie ustawy – Prawo zamówień publicznych oraz niektórych innych ustaw, published in Dziennik Ustaw on 26 August 2025 as Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1173, raised it to 170 000 zł with effect from 1 January 2026. The consolidated text of art. 2 ust. 1 pkt 1 now reads 170 000 złotych, and the Public Procurement Office confirms both figure and date in its own announcement. That announcement also flags that arts. 7–10 of the amending act contain the intertemporal rules, so the question for any individual tender is when the procedure was launched, not when the contract gets signed.

Below 170 000 zł the Act simply does not apply. Public bodies still buy at that level, and in volume, but they buy under their own internal purchasing rules, publish where they choose — usually a BIP page — and owe you none of the statutory protections described elsewhere in this glossary.

Zamówienia bagatelne: a category that never ran

The Act as originally passed contained art. 2 ust. 2, a light publication duty for purchases between 50 000 zł and the main threshold, called zamówienia bagatelne. It was repealed by the ustawa z 27 listopada 2020 r. (Dz.U. 2020 poz. 2275) before the Act ever entered into force. In the current consolidated text art. 2 ust. 2 reads simply (uchylony). Polish buyers still use the phrase informally for small purchases below the statutory threshold, and you will meet it in internal regulations and in conversation, but it is not a statutory regime and carries no notice obligation. Some commercial glossaries date its abolition to 1 January 2026, conflating it with the threshold rise; the repeal was five years earlier.

Two regimes above the threshold

Between 170 000 zł and the EU thresholds, buyers use tryb podstawowy, the national basic procedure under art. 275, and publish in the Biuletyn Zamówień Publicznych.

At or above the EU thresholds, art. 129 opens seven procedures: przetarg nieograniczony, przetarg ograniczony, negocjacje z ogłoszeniem, dialog konkurencyjny, partnerstwo innowacyjne, negocjacje bez ogłoszenia and zamówienie z wolnej ręki. The first two are at the buyer's free choice; the rest only in cases the Act specifies. UZP publishes the EU thresholds and their złoty equivalents — for 2026–2027, using a rate of 4,31 zł to the euro, works at 5 404 000 EUR (23 291 240 zł), central-government supplies and services at 140 000 EUR (603 400 zł), sub-central at 216 000 EUR (930 960 zł), and social and special services at 750 000 EUR (3 232 500 zł).

Mechanics the Act imposes

Art. 61 ust. 1 makes electronic communication the rule for the whole procedure, including offer submission. Arts. 134 and 281 fix a statutory minimum content list for the specification. Art. 97 caps bid security at 3% of contract value and makes it optional for the buyer to demand. Arts. 449–452 govern performance security. Art. 224 sets the abnormally low price test and puts the burden of proof on you. Arts. 505, 513 and 515 open the appeal route to the Krajowa Izba Odwoławcza, and art. 580 the onward complaint to the Warsaw regional court.

What to do about it

First, place the contract: below 170 000 zł, above it but below the EU threshold, or above the EU threshold. That single answer tells you where the notice will appear, which procedure applies, how long you have to bid, and what your appeal deadline is.

Second, check the launch date on anything straddling the new year. A procedure opened in December 2025 runs on the old 130 000 zł figure and old wording.

Third, treat the article numbers in the notice as the index they are. When a buyer states grounds for exclusion, a security requirement or an award criterion, the corresponding article tells you exactly what it is allowed to ask for — and when it has gone beyond that, art. 513 makes the step appealable.

Related terms

See Otnox plans to track procurement opportunities across 80+ markets.