Selling into Germany through distributors

How the market buys

Germany is a very large public market and a highly decentralised one. The federal government, sixteen Länder and thousands of municipalities each buy for their own estates, schools, hospitals, utilities and services, and each publishes where its rules require. There is no single national portal in the French or Dutch sense; there is a federal publication service and a market of commercial platforms that authorities use to run procedures.

Three entry points cover most of it. service.bund.de is the federal administration's portal and carries the federal government's procurement notices. The Bekanntmachungsservice at oeffentlichevergabe.de is the publication service of the Datenservice Öffentlicher Einkauf, implemented by the federal Procurement Office (Beschaffungsamt des BMI): it is the central place where EU-wide and national notices from federal, state and municipal authorities can be found, free of charge and without registration, and notices reach it in the eForms-DE format that has been mandatory for EU-wide procedures since October 2023. DTVP, the Deutsches Vergabeportal, is a commercial e-procurement platform operated by DTVP Deutsches Vergabeportal GmbH with Bundesanzeiger Verlag and cosinex, used by authorities at every level to publish and run tenders.

German public buyers are exacting on documentation and prefer suppliers who are present in the country. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 95% of the winners in the 12,351 notices from buyers in Germany were companies registered in the country (96% across the 30 EU and EEA countries); those local winners include distributors and dealers (in Germany, the specialist trade or Fachhandel) as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries — see our methodology. A foreign manufacturer enters by being listed with them.

Lawful first contact

This is the market where the first e-mail goes wrong. Section 7(2) of the Act against Unfair Competition (UWG) lists advertising by e-mail "without the prior express consent of the recipient" as an unreasonable nuisance, and section 7(1) makes such a practice unlawful. The rule applies to business recipients as much as to consumers. The only built-in exception, section 7(3), covers existing customers whose address was obtained in the course of a sale, for similar goods, who have not objected and were clearly told they can opt out. Enforcement runs through civil claims: the recipient company itself can demand that the sender stop, because the Federal Court of Justice has held that even a single unsolicited advertising e-mail can unlawfully interfere with its business (BGH, 20 May 2009, I ZR 218/07), and under section 8(3) UWG competitors, registered trade associations, qualified consumer organisations and the chambers can do the same.

Telephone calls to businesses are governed separately: section 7(2) requires "at least presumed consent" from a business recipient, a narrower door that needs care. Treat it as a door for follow-up after a signal of interest, not for a first contact.

What works: a short, factual letter by post to the managing director, with a one-page product sheet in German and a clear reason why your range fits what the distributor already sells; a stand or a visit at the sector's trade fair; an introduction through an association, a buying group or an existing German partner; and a fast, complete reply to any enquiry that comes to you. From the first reply onwards, e-mail is fine — the prohibition is on the unsolicited first message, not on correspondence the recipient has invited.

What local distributors expect

German distributors expect the paperwork to be right before the conversation starts:

• German-language technical documentation, instructions, safety information and price lists. A distributor will check them against the standards German buyers specify.
• Conformity evidence for the category — CE marking, declarations, test reports — and, for regulated products, the registrations the distributor must hold.
• Reliability over price. Lead times you can keep, a range that stays in production for the life of a framework, and spare parts afterwards.
• A commercial structure that respects the distributor's existing brands: margin, territory, who serves which accounts, and a position on exclusivity. Buying groups negotiate centrally for their members, so be prepared for that layer.
• A legal and formal footing: full company identity on every document, an Impressum-standard level of transparency on your website, and clear terms on warranty and liability.
• Patience. The cycle is long, decisions are made carefully, and the first order is often a trial.

How to enter, step by step

1. Find who already wins your category. In TED's advanced search, set the buyer country to Germany, the notice type to results and add your CPV codes; narrowing by place of performance lets you look at one Land at a time. The companies named in the award notices are your shortlist, and Cresques runs this search for the CPV categories you choose. National and below-threshold notices are collected by the Bekanntmachungsservice at oeffentlichevergabe.de.
2. Check the Kaufhaus des Bundes. Registered federal authorities order standard products in the Kaufhaus des Bundes, an electronic purchasing platform run from the Beschaffungsamt des BMI. Four central procurement offices pool demand and conclude framework agreements, and only suppliers that won the award in a public procurement procedure are listed — so if your category is there, the framework holder is the company to talk to.
3. Prepare German documentation. Technical documentation, instructions, safety information and price lists in German, checked against the standards German buyers specify.
4. Assemble conformity evidence. CE marking, declarations and test reports for the category, and for regulated products the registrations the distributor must hold.
5. Put your company identity in order. Full company identity on every document, Impressum-standard transparency on your website, and clear terms on warranty and liability.
6. Make the first contact by letter, at a fair or through an introduction. Write a short, factual letter by post to the managing director with a one-page product sheet in German and a clear reason why your range fits; or take a stand or visit the sector's trade fair, or ask an association, a buying group or an existing German partner to introduce you. No first e-mail.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring margin, territory, who serves which accounts and a position on exclusivity, and be ready for buying groups that negotiate centrally. Show lead times you can keep, a range that stays in production for the life of a framework, and spare parts afterwards.
8. Follow up with patience. From the first reply onwards, e-mail is fine; keep the phone for follow-up after a signal of interest. Expect a long cycle and a trial order first.

Where the evidence comes from

Above the EU thresholds — EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public authorities from 1 January 2026 — German buyers must publish contract award notices, and those notices appear on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. Each notice names the winning company and carries CPV codes, so the distributors that repeatedly win, for example, protective clothing or construction materials contracts in a Land can be identified from the public record. National and below-threshold notices are collected by the Bekanntmachungsservice at oeffentlichevergabe.de.

Cresques reads the award notices for the CPV categories you choose and shows who already sells that category in Germany. It does not help you bid for the contracts; the notices are evidence of who the buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them without a complaint.