Country kit
Bidding in Netherlands: the country kit
What a company from another country needs to know before it bids for a public contract in Netherlands.
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
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Every notice is published on TenderNed. The bid goes to TenderNed or to the commercial platform the buyer uses, which the notice names.
Check it at TenderNed
- Account to submit
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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 TenderNed
- ESPD and eCertis
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The European Single Procurement Document is accepted as a first proof that you are suitable; here it is called UEA (Uniform Europees Aanbestedingsdocument). eCertis shows which certificates of your own country match the ones asked for.
Check it at eCertis (European Commission)
- Registers and lists
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There is no list to join before bidding. The successful bidder is usually asked for an extract from the trade register and a certificate of conduct for tenders (Gedragsverklaring aanbesteden); a company from another state provides the equivalents of its own country. Dutch companies sign in to TenderNed with eHerkenning: a company from abroad that has none should ask TenderNed how to register.
Check it at PIANOo, Expertisecentrum Aanbesteden
- Language of the bid
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Bids are usually written in Dutch. Certificates in another language usually need a translation; the documents say whether it has to be certified.
Some buyers accept bids in English: the documents say so.
Check it at TenderNed
From the register
Counted from the notices Aperlena reads. These lines change as the register does.
- Sources we read
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- TenderNed - Marktconsultaties (market consultations, Ministerie van Economische Zaken)
- TenderNed (Ministerie van Economische Zaken)
Notices above the EU thresholds also arrive through TED, the EU's Tenders Electronic Daily.
- Open now
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1,761 open notices. See them
Busiest sectors: Business services (218), Construction work (203), IT services (176)
- Time to bid
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Open procedure above the EU thresholds: usually 38 to 60 days from publication to the deadline (median: 47, from 11,029 notices).
Open procedure below the EU thresholds: usually 28 to 51 days from publication to the deadline (median: 39, from 168 notices).
- Language of the notices
- Dutch
- Currency
- Amounts are stated in euros (EUR).
- Working days
-
Deadlines on Aperlena count working days on the national calendar of Netherlands: 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
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Usually 20 calendar days from the day after the decision was sent.
The buyer usually may not sign the contract before it ends.
- Time to challenge
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No period of its own: the application usually has to arrive before the contract is signed, in practice within the standstill period.
- Review body
- Voorzieningenrechter (kort geding)
- Rule
- Aanbestedingswet 2012, art. 2.127
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 Netherlands