Central purchasing body

An entity that bundles procurement for other public contracting authorities or runs procedures on their behalf.

A central purchasing body buys goods or services for other public contracting authorities, or runs procurement procedures in their name. Its purpose is to aggregate demand and standardize certain purchases.

At federal level, the concept is fairly structured. At cantonal or municipal level, the concrete setup can vary, but the basic idea stays the same: not every authority buys everything on its own.

For bidders, that often means larger volumes and more structured procedures than in isolated one-off procurements.