- Avoiding lock-in effects:
Authorities should no longer become dependent on individual software giants.
Seamless collaboration between different systems is made easier through open standards.
According to the report, the argument of economy also speaks in favor of this approach. According to the OSBA, economic considerations could justify preferential consideration of OSS. Ultimately, it reduces long-term costs, dependencies and migration efforts.
Pressure from the ECJ
The topic is made even more explosive by the fact that the report is based on the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), according to a note from the open source association. In a ruling from January 2025 that has so far been little known to the public, the ECJ came to the conclusion: Authorities may no longer use self-inflicted vendor lock-ins as an excuse to award contracts directly to their existing IT partners without competition.
Rather, the administrations are now obliged to reduce these dependencies through active market monitoring. In OSBA’s opinion, the Bundestag’s report provides a clear impetus here: anyone who relies on open source during the initial awarding process prevents the emergence of costly exclusivity situations from the outset.
Ultimately, the report marks a turning point. Since the above-mentioned reasons for open source – from security to cost efficiency – play a role in almost every procurement process, the advocacy group believes that the requirement for open source software is now “as good as possible”. It remains to be seen how quickly the authorities will use this new leeway to throw off the digital shackles of proprietary providers. The first federal states such as Schleswig-Holstein have already completed the digital transition.
