With the Rüfffert case, the CJEU demonstrated that the Posting of Workers Directive puts some restraints on Member States not only in their capacity as legislators, but also as buyers and contractors on the market. However, also the special EU regime on public procurement confronts Member States authorities with challenges when they want to make sure that their contractors live up to certain standards as employers. The procurement regime is technical and extremely complex, and it is partly unclear – and controversial – what is allowed in this respect.

In this chapter we are exploring how labour rights are dealt with in the context of public procurement, and what implications the multi level structure of the procurement regime has had for this.