Public tenders in France

A public tender in France is a procédure de passation under the Code de la commande publique. A buyer — the State, a local authority, a hospital, or another contracting authority — defines the need, advertises it when the code requires advertising, issues a dossier de consultation des entreprises, and awards to the tender that meets the conditions and ranks first on the published criteria.

Below the EU thresholds, many contracts use a procédure adaptée: advertising and competition suited to the value and the subject. At or above those thresholds, the buyer uses a formalised procedure. That is an appel d’offres, a procedure with negotiation, competitive dialogue, or, in the limited cases the code allows, a negotiated procedure without a call for competition. The notice names which one this contract uses.

Three official places do different jobs. Use the journal to find the notice, then the buyer profile named in that notice to download the dossier and submit the tender.

• BOAMP (Bulletin officiel des annonces des marchés publics) is the national journal of notices, published by the Direction de l’information légale et administrative. Service-Public Entreprendre explains when a notice must appear there.
• TED is the European journal. A French notice above the EU thresholds is published in the BOAMP and sent to TED. TED does not hold the French dossier.
• PLACE (Plateforme des achats de l’État) is the State’s buyer profile. Service-Public Entreprendre says publication on PLACE is obligatory for State contracts from €60,000 excluding VAT, and that companies consult and respond there for ministries, devolved State services, public establishments, and independent administrative authorities. Local authorities use their own profil d’acheteur. The notice names it.

From 1 January 2026 a formalised procedure is required at the EU thresholds: €140,000 excluding VAT for supplies and services awarded by a central government authority, €216,000 excluding VAT for other contracting authorities, €432,000 excluding VAT for a utility (entité adjudicatrice), and €5,404,000 excluding VAT for works. Concession contracts use that same works figure. Service-Public Entreprendre’s threshold sheet states these bands and matches Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152.

Advertising underneath those figures depends on the buyer and the subject. For supplies and for services, the same sheet says a contract below €60,000 excluding VAT can be awarded without prior advertising or competition. From €90,000 excluding VAT up to the EU threshold that applies to that buyer, a notice in the BOAMP or in a support habilité à recevoir des annonces légales is required. From the EU threshold, the notice goes in the BOAMP and in the Official Journal of the EU.

For works, the sheet says a contract below €100,000 excluding VAT can be awarded without prior advertising or competition, with BOAMP or legal-announcements advertising from €100,000 up to the EU works threshold, and both the BOAMP and the Official Journal from €5,404,000. It also records a temporary higher dispense, until 31 December 2026, for certain heat-pump and district-heating works, and a general works dispense of €140,000 excluding VAT from 1 January 2027. Use the current sheet for the contract in front of you. Social and other specific services follow the €750,000 figure in EUR-Lex summary of Directive 2014/24/EU.

The dossier de consultation des entreprises is the pack. It usually includes the règlement de la consultation, which states how to submit and how offers are judged, the cahier des clauses administratives particulières, the cahier des clauses techniques particulières, an acte d’engagement, and a price schedule. Candidates also complete exclusion and selection forms. Under the EU rules that selection declaration is often the European Single Procurement Document.

Minimum reception periods follow Directive 2014/24/EU. In an open procedure the ordinary minimum is 35 days from dispatch of the contract notice, with shorter minima when submission is electronic or a prior information notice was published. The deadline in the règlement de la consultation is the binding one. Amendments and answers to questions are part of the dossier. Submit on the buyer profile named in the notice.

French. The notice, the dossier, and the forms are in French. A TED notice can be displayed in other EU languages. That display is not the dossier.

Write the tender in the language the règlement de la consultation requires. Assume French unless that document expressly accepts another language.

Companies established in the EU and EEA compete for procedures covered by the directives. Suppliers from parties to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement can compete for covered contracts above the relevant threshold, on the terms of that agreement. Read the conditions of participation, the lots, and whether a French qualification or insurance certificate can be met with an equivalent document.

Answer through the buyer profile. For a State contract that profile is often PLACE. For a city, a hospital, or a region it is the profile named in the BOAMP or TED notice. A company that writes from the notice and never opens the dossier is answering a summary. how to find public tenders worth opening is the longer note on that distinction.

A French notice at or above the EU thresholds can appear in TenderFaro’s TED search. BOAMP and the buyer profile — PLACE for the State, another profil d’acheteur for a local buyer — remain the sources for the notice details and the dossier. TenderFaro does not replace them.

TenderFaro does not award contracts and does not decide legal eligibility. Discovery searches published notices on TED and UK Find a Tender. SAM.gov search is available when a server credential is configured, and the product says so rather than inventing results. Importing a notice stores it for your organisation and does not start an analysis. With the tender documents in hand, TenderFaro helps a team turn them into structured requirements and compare those requirements with company evidence, with the source wording kept next to the finding. Gaps and potential blockers stay visible for a person to review.

A search result is not a tender pack. A watch match is not a recommendation to bid. An evidence comparison is not a compliance ruling. The company makes the decision. Nothing on this site guarantees an award. The product path is in discover tenders, how TenderFaro works, and a sample analysis.