Country kit
Bidding in France: the country kit
What a company from another country needs to know before it bids for a public contract in France.
Not legal advice. Rules and portals change: check the buyer's documents and the official portal.
Written notes last reviewed on November 15, 2026.
For a bidder from abroad
What a company from another country usually runs into. Each line names where you can check it.
- Portals
-
The State's buyers use PLACE. Local authorities and hospitals use their own buyer profile (profil d'acheteur), which the notice in the BOAMP links. Each platform wants its own account.
Check it at PLACE, la plateforme des achats de l'État, BOAMP
- Getting the documents
-
The procurement documents can usually be downloaded without an account. Sign in anyway: only a registered reader is told when the buyer changes them or answers a question.
Check it at PLACE, la plateforme des achats de l'État
- Account to submit
-
To submit you need an account on the platform the notice names. Open it days ahead: some platforms check a new company by hand.
Check it at PLACE, la plateforme des achats de l'État
- Electronic signature
-
A signature is usually not required to submit: the successful bidder signs the contract. The rules of the procedure say when a signature is wanted earlier.
A qualified signature from a provider established in another EU state has the same legal effect (eIDAS Regulation, Article 25). Whether the platform's own tool reads your certificate is a practical matter: try it well before the deadline.
Check it at PLACE, la plateforme des achats de l'État, EU trusted lists of signature providers
- ESPD and eCertis
-
The European Single Procurement Document is accepted as a first proof that you are suitable; here it is called DUME (document unique de marché européen). eCertis shows which certificates of your own country match the ones asked for.
Check it at eCertis (European Commission)
- Registers and lists
-
There is no list to join before bidding. The successful bidder hands in tax and social security certificates before signing; a company from another state provides the equivalent documents of its own country.
Check it at Direction des affaires juridiques (DAJ), commande publique
- Language of the bid
-
Bids are usually written in French. Certificates in another language usually need a translation; the documents say whether it has to be certified.
Check it at PLACE, la plateforme des achats de l'État
From the register
Counted from the notices Aperlena reads. These lines change as the register does.
- Sources we read
-
- BOAMP - Bulletin officiel des annonces de marchés publics (DILA)
- DECP - Donnees essentielles de la commande publique (data.gouv.fr)
- Klekoon - buyer profile of French public buyers (klekoon.com)
Notices above the EU thresholds also arrive through TED, the EU's Tenders Electronic Daily.
- Open now
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8,439 open notices. See them
Busiest sectors: Construction work (1,933), Architecture & engineering services (1,111), Repair & maintenance services (655)
- Time to bid
-
Open procedure above the EU thresholds: usually 29 to 39 days from publication to the deadline (median: 32, from 64,328 notices).
Open procedure below the EU thresholds: usually 25 to 35 days from publication to the deadline (median: 30, from 25,788 notices).
- Language of the notices
- French
- Currency
- Amounts are stated in euros (EUR).
- Working days
-
Deadlines on Aperlena count working days on the national calendar of France: Monday to Friday, without the national public holidays. Regional holidays are not counted.
The next national holidays on a weekday: , , ,
After the award
Not legal advice. The periods run from the day the decision is sent to you. Check your award letter and national law before you rely on any of them.
- Standstill period
-
Usually 11 calendar days from the day after the decision was sent (16 when it was not sent electronically).
The buyer usually may not sign the contract before it ends.
- Time to challenge
-
No period of its own: the application usually has to arrive before the contract is signed, in practice within the standstill period.
- Review body
- Tribunal administratif (référé précontractuel)
- Rule
- Code de la commande publique, art. R. 2182-1; CJA, art. L. 551-1
The periods are the ones for contracts above the EU thresholds. Below them national rules differ, and some awards have no standstill at all.
On the page of an awarded notice the periods are counted from its award date, with a letter asking the buyer for its reasons. Awarded contracts in France