Database

Foreign, as well as local bidders, must quote and accept payment in Euro, unless otherwise specified in the tender documents.

It is reported that the right of access to public procurement is limited to regional trade agreement partners and members of the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement.

It is reported that Greece imposes onerous qualification requirements on companies seeking to bid on public procurement tenders. Companies must submit documentation from competent authorities indicating that they have paid taxes, have not been in bankruptcy and have paid in full their social security obligations for their employees.

All managing directors and board members of companies that want to participate in procurements must submit certifications from competent authorities that they have not engaged in fraud, money laundering, criminal activity or similar activities. It is difficult for foreign firms to comply with these requirements due to the lack of or difficulty to find competent authorities in their home countries which issue these types of certifications.

Public tenders may have a stipulation that foreign bidders must submit their offers in a venture with a local company. In major projects, the utilization of local resources (engineering services, manpower supplies, manufacturing, or assembly) is reported as an important factor in bid evaluations.

The European Regulation No. 1042/2013 amending the Council Implementing Regulation No. 282/2011, declares that from January 2015, all supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services will be taxable at the place where the customer belongs. These include, inter alia:
- images or text, such as photos, screensavers, e-books and other digitised documents e.g. PDF files;
- music, films and games, including games of chance and gambling games, and of programmes on demand;
- online magazines website supply or web hosting services distance maintenance of programmes and equipment;
- supplies of software and software updates advertising space on a website.

Both EU and non-EU suppliers have to register for VAT purposes and comply with the relevant obligations of the Member State where the customer is established, has his/her permanent address or usually resides. This may be burdensome as there are 81 VAT rates across the 28 EU countries and the rates may vary between 3% (Luxembourg) to 27% (Hungary) across member states. Furthermore, member states impose varying thresholds at which companies must begin paying VAT, ranging from EUR 0 to EUR 60,000.

As an alternative to obtaining multiple VAT registrations in each Member State where a supplier has a customer, affected suppliers may be able to opt to account for VAT across the EU via a a web-portal in the Member State in which they are identified. Hence, the system, known as the Mini One-Stop Shop (MOSS) scheme, allows taxable persons to avoid registering in each Member State of consumption.

The EU Copyright Directive allows “fair compensation” for copyright owners. As a result, several Member States have imposed national levy systems.

In Greece, importers or manufacturers are liable for payment upon import or distribution by the manufacturer. 6% rate applies on all products/devices’ import price for audio CD-R, audio CD-RW, DAT, mini disc, DVD-audio, digital audio recorders – MP3 players, Hifi CD writer (consumer), music mobile phones, DVD-R, CD-RW Data, DVD writer PC (external), CD ROM recorder PC (external), TV with recorder (hard disc), DVD recorders (with or without Hard disc), hard drive media players, digital cameras with SD cards, game consoles, mini discs, compact flash memories, smart media memory cards, jazz drives mobile phones (except music mobiles).

Since 2011, cash-gaming is regulated separately by 16 regions. Schleswig-Holstein has permitted full licensing, while the other 15 states have an intergovernmental agreements which permits up to 20 license holders to offer sports betting, but prohibits other forms of online gaming.

For .de domain applications, German authorities require an administrative contact, who resides in Germany.

The European de minimis threshold for import duties is harmonized. Goods with a value of up to 131 SDR / 150 EUR / 198 USD are exempted from customs duties. The VAT de minimis threshold is not harmonized within the EU and can vary between 10 and 22 EUR, i.e. Member States can decide on a value within this range to grant an exemption on VAT for imported goods.

According to Germany's de minimis rule, goods with a value of up to 19 SDR / 22 EUR / 29 USD are exempted from VAT.

Germany extended its copyright systems to include the notion of a tax or levy on links or quotations (so-called ancillary copyright). Google announced that it would de-index snippets from German publishers. In response, the publishers’ collecting society VG Media complained to German competition authorities. The society took the position that Google was obligated to continue indexing its sites and nevertheless still pay the levy. As a result, newspapers gave Google the right to run snippets for free, despite the new ancillary copyright law.

German buyers may require additional performance or quality marks, which are not necessarily legally required, but which greatly enhance a product's chances of being marketed. Both EU requirements and the standards for a German quality or performance mark will, in many cases, require modifications for an imported product. Even if the product does not require modification, it may still need testing and certification before it can be marketed. Two non-mandatory marks which may still be critical to successfully marketing products in Germany are the "geprüfte Sicherheit" (GS) mark, for mechanical products, and the "Verband Deutscher Elektrotechniker" (VDE) mark, for electrical components.

According to the German Banking Act, it must be ensured that the use of cloud services in the financial sector neither affects the regularity of business and services nor the business organization.

The use of Cloud Computing services may be subject to export control, if the respective data are technical data intended for the production or use of goods under export control according to the Foreign Trade and Payments Ordinance.

In certain states, public and private hospitals can use IT services external to the hospital only if they obtain prior consent of the subject or if there is prior anonymisation of the patient data.

In general, the collection, use and processing of social data shall be entrusted to public servants who owe their services and loyalty to the state. The use of cloud computing by private entities is subject to certain restrictions. It must ensure the absence of disturbances during the operations, lead to significant cost savings and the major part of the database has to remain with the respective public authority.