The present article focuses on the issue of the provision of services of general economic interest by companies of local government units. Various parts discuss the basic requirements for entrusting the provision of this type of services to commercial companies, with particular reference to phenomena observed on a practical basis. It also addresses the aspects of diagnosed activities that bear signs of defectiveness, while stressing the importance of practices regarded as model. Collection and summary of conditions for the preparation and ordering the services from the sphere of public tasks was accompanied by the reflection on individual solutions, whose culmination are the observations relating to the recent changes in the national legislation and practice observed in other Member States.