The Online Access Act (OZG) obliges the federal government and the federal states to also offer their administrative services electronically via administrative portals; in doing so, the federal states ensure that their municipalities are connected. These portals are linked to one another via a so-called portal network, so that citizens and companies can find a service regardless of which authority is specifically responsible. The act thus regulates digital access to the administration – not the individual specialized procedures behind it.
The OZG originally entered into force in 2017 and set the legal framework for administrative digitalization in Germany. The federal government and the federal states are responsible for implementation in federal interaction; the specific provision of many services lies with the municipalities. At federal level, lead responsibility has rested since May 2025 with the newly created Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS), which took over responsibility for the OZG and administrative digitalization from the Federal Ministry of the Interior. A single service offered digitally is often referred to as an OZG service.
With the act amending the OZG (OZGÄndG), colloquially "OZG 2.0", the act was fundamentally revised. It was promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette (BGBl. 2024 I no. 245) and entered into force on July 24, 2024. The focus is on:
Also new is a statutory legal entitlement: citizens and companies are given the right to use federal administrative services electronically. However, this entitlement only takes effect after the end of the fourth calendar year following promulgation – with promulgation in 2024, therefore from 2029 – and it covers exclusively federal services, not those of the federal states and municipalities. For company-related federal services in the area of commercial law, it is also planned that they will, in principle, only be offered electronically after five years at the latest. For ongoing case processing, implementation will therefore initially remain gradual.
For authorities, OZG implementation primarily means: connection to the portal network, provision of reusable online services, and the gradual digitalization of the underlying processes. A central building block is the "One for All" (EfA) principle, under which one federal state develops an online service and others reuse it instead of building every service anew. Closely linked to digital access is electronic records management (e-file): without it, digitally submitted applications cannot be processed further end to end. The Public Sector and Administration topic area brings together further fundamentals on administrative digitalization.
The OZG obliges the federal government, the federal states, and municipalities to also offer their administrative services electronically. It entered into force in 2017 and forms the legal basis for the so-called portal network, via which citizens and companies can find and use digital administrative services regardless of the responsible authority. The act only regulates digital access, not the underlying specialized procedures of the individual authorities.
The OZGÄndG has been in force since July 24, 2024 (BGBl. 2024 I no. 245). It brings continuous end-to-end digitalization of administrative services, the central user account BundID, which is to be developed further into the DeutschlandID in the future, the extensive waiver of the written form, as well as the once-only principle for evidence and a new statutory legal entitlement to digital federal services for citizens and companies.
The legal entitlement only takes effect after the end of the fourth calendar year following promulgation – with promulgation in 2024, therefore from 2029 – and applies exclusively to electronic federal administrative services, not to services of the federal states and municipalities. For company-related federal services in commercial law, a "digital only" rule also applies after five years at the latest.
Since May 2025, lead responsibility has rested with the newly created Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS) under Minister Karsten Wildberger. It took over responsibility for the OZG and administrative digitalization from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which had previously held lead responsibility for the task. The federal states and municipalities continue to implement their own OZG services themselves.
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