No E-Catalogue, but a Marketplace: How We’ll Be Buying Through Prozorro Market Under the New Law

In 2025, more than 298,000 requests for suppliers’ proposals were run through Prozorro Market, contracting over UAH 120 billion.  Overall, this method accounted for roughly 45% of the competitive procurements in the system by number in 2025, though for less than 14% by estimated value. For now, Prozorro Market is mandatory for procuring a range of goods, including food products (until 1 September), medicines, and goods for the New Ukrainian School (NUS). For other categories, its use is voluntary.

Within the updated thresholds for ordinary contracting authorities as defined by the Law, a similar method will become the main way to procure goods worth between EUR 2,000 and EUR 10,000 (approximately UAH 100,000–500,000). The thresholds in the new Law on Public Procurement (the Law) are set in euros, excluding VAT. Conversion into hryvnia will be based on the National Bank exchange rate as of 1 January each year. So, for this price range, using the marketplace will be mandatory whenever the item is in the catalogue. Beyond that, it may also be used voluntarily for procurements of any value up to the EU thresholds — and for every subject of procurement. As a result, Prozorro Market’s large share is likely to hold, and may even grow. That is why we have decided to begin our look at the new procedures and methods precisely with how the new Law will regulate procurement through Prozorro Market.

Adapting to EU legislation

The EU directives do not provide for an electronic catalogue in the format that currently exists in Ukraine. So, while draft law No. 11520 was being prepared, the question arose as to which European procurement method it resembled and how to adapt it. That method turned out to be the dynamic procurement system (DPS). In the draft law, the electronic catalogue became one of its options, under the name electronic marketplace.

A dynamic procurement system is, in essence, similar to a framework agreement, but one that is always open for businesses to join. Competitive procurements are announced among the qualified candidates admitted to the DPS. A similar method already exists in Ukraine in defense procurement, but it is available to only a few contracting authorities. 

The DPS has two stages:

1. qualification selection of candidates;
2. competitive selection, or a request for proposals.

Prozorro Market, then, has been written into the Law as one type of the DPS’s second stage. Qualification of candidates by the CPO will take place as the first stage of the DPS, while the actual request for participants’ proposals (this is what it will now be called) will be a form of the second stage. This is what a procurement through the Prozorro Market electronic marketplace will be.  

The marketplace will allow the procurement of not only goods but also works and services — this, too, is a consequence of adapting to the EU directive.

Administering the marketplace

Only central procurement organizations designated by the Cabinet of Ministers will be able to set up the DPSs that operate as an electronic marketplace — where contracting authorities announce requests for participants’ proposals. This is what will set them apart from classic DPSs, which any CPO or contracting authority may announce. The CPOs designated by the Cabinet of Ministers will create categories and profiles of goods, works, and services, along with their libraries, and will qualify candidates. A CPO’s decisions, actions, or inaction regarding the inclusion or exclusion of goods, works, and services in or from the library and the qualification of candidates, as well as the terms of the qualification selection themselves, may be appealed to the AMCU. The qualification stage may also be monitored by the State Audit Service.

Types of requests 

Once the new Law takes effect, requests through Prozorro Market will effectively split into two types by the estimated value of the procurement item: up to EUR 10,000 (UAH 500,000), and above that amount up to the EU thresholds — that is, up to EUR 140,000 (UAH 7 million) for goods and services, and up to EUR 5.4 million (UAH 274 million) for works. Procurement through the marketplace above these amounts is not allowed.

For requests up to EUR 10,000, little will actually change compared with how requests for suppliers’ proposals work today.

A Prozorro Market request up to EUR 10,000:

• is mandatory for goods worth between EUR 2,000 and EUR 10,000 (approximately UAH 100,000–500,000) if the item is in the marketplace;
• is voluntary for goods up to EUR 2,000 (UAH 100,000) and for services and works up to EUR 10,000 (UAH 500,000);
• allows the request to specify the characteristics of a particular item;
• has a proposal submission period of at least 2 days;
• gives the winner 4 days to upload documents;
• allows the contract to be concluded 5 days after the winner is determined; 
• has no appeals procedure and no monitoring; 
• does not allow a request for clarification or a demand to remedy a violation to be submitted to the contracting authority.

Overall, a procurement of this kind will take at least 8 days. 

Much will change for Prozorro Market procurements above EUR 10,000: it will become possible to request clarification, appeal, and monitor, and the process will take longer. This method will come closer to open tendering.

A request for proposals in Prozorro Market above EUR 10,000:

•  is voluntary for procurements from EUR 10,000 up to the EU thresholds;
• may be used if the goods, service, or works are in the marketplace;
• does not allow specific characteristics to be indicated;
• has a proposal submission period of at least 10 days;
• gives the winner 8 days to upload documents;
• allows the contract to be concluded 10 days after the winner is determined, provided there are no appeals;
• lets potential participants request clarification of the request and demand that a violation be remedied — the contracting authority will have 2 days to respond;
• allows the contracting authority to amend the request not only on its own initiative but also in response to such a submission;
• lets a participant appeal the draft contract, as well as the contracting authority’s decisions, actions, and inaction, to the AMCU;
• may be monitored by the State Audit Service.

Overall, a procurement of this kind will take at least about 22 days, absent any amendments or appeals. For comparison, the minimum duration of open tendering will be around 28 days. 

Note that the split between request types does not fully match the division of procurements into below-threshold and above-threshold under Article 3 — there, the threshold for works is higher than EUR 10,000 (EUR 40,000). So bear in mind that, even though your request for participants’ proposals for works may be below-threshold within the meaning of Article 3 if its estimated value exceeds EUR 10,000 it must be run under the corresponding rules, participants will be able to appeal it, and auditors will be able to monitor it.

Common requirements and options for all requests 

In general, the requirements for a request will not change:

• Such a procurement must be entered into the annual procurement plan.
• The request is announced in line with the technical specification and the other requirements for the procurement item set by the CPO during the qualification selection.
• It may not contain any requirements or documents beyond those provided for in the article on qualification selection. Note that qualification criteria for candidates, grounds for refusal of participation, and the associated lists of documents may not be demanded in the request, since these requirements are set exclusively by the CPO during the qualification selection. 
• Nor may a lower price limit be set for a participant’s proposal.
• The request must include a draft contract whose content may not contradict the electronic fields. 
• The government will be able to approve mandatory contract templates for particular procurement items. In that case, the CPO will post the template in the system and the contracting authority will have to follow it. A CPO may also post contract templates for voluntary use — in which case the contracting authority may either use them or upload its own draft contract. Such contracts are concluded as electronic documents. 
• The request also states the name of the item with its CPV code, the estimated value, the volumes, the timeframe and place of contract performance, and the deadline and language for submitting proposals.  

Unlike today’s requests, future ones are said to allow the item to be divided into lots. Price will remain the sole evaluation criterion. Likewise, the timeframes for reviewing the lowest-priced proposal remain unchanged.

The list of grounds on which the contracting authority must reject proposals within a request for participants’ proposals has, however, been spelled out in somewhat more detail. It will be required to reject a proposal:

• not only if the goods are of Russian origin, but also if the participant itself has ties to the Russian Federation, the Republic of Belarus, or Iran — at present, only the catalogue administrator rejects on the basis of such ties;
• if there are grounds for refusing its participation in the procurement (a criminal record, and so on), or if it does not meet the requirements of the qualification selection conducted by the CPO.

It has also been clarified that a refusal to conclude a contract, on the basis of which the winner is rejected, must be sent as an electronic document.

The contract will have to be concluded no later than 20 days after the winner is determined, with the option to extend this to 30 days. These are longer periods than at present. But, as now, the contracting authority may, if it sees fit, require performance security for the public contract concluded as a result of the request.

The rules set out in the Law will not be exhaustive. Some matters will be governed by secondary legislation. In particular, the Cabinet of Ministers will determine the structure of the electronic marketplace, the procedure for creating and building it, and the fees for using it. 

This material is funded by the European Union. Its content is the sole responsibility of Transparency International Ukraine and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.