Guides · France
Bidding on tenders in France.
How public procurement works in France — registration, eligibility, bid security and submission — checked against the official rules.
Bidding
How to bid for public contracts in France
How French public procurement (marchés publics) works in 2026: where tenders are published (BOAMP, PLACE, TED), the 2026 thresholds, MAPA and formal procedures, the DUME, French-language bids, payment terms and advances, and what non-EU companies, including Indian firms, can and can't bid on.
Read the guideBidding
How to respond to a French public tender, step by step: BOAMP, PLACE and buyer platforms
A practical 2026 walkthrough for French and foreign companies: setting up BOAMP alerts, registering on PLACE and other buyer platforms (with a foreign identifier instead of a SIRET), downloading the DCE, asking questions, building the DUME or DC1/DC2 file, the mémoire technique and price schedules, electronic signature rules for foreign certificates, the backup copy, submission and the receipt, rejection letters and debriefs, winners' certificates, Chorus Pro invoicing without a SIRET, and advance payments.
Read the guideGlossary
French public procurement glossary: marchés publics terms explained in English
Plain-English definitions of the French terms you meet in public tenders in 2026: marché public, commande publique, MAPA, appel d'offres ouvert and restreint, DCE, avis de marché, BOAMP, profil d'acheteur, DUME, DC1, DC2, DC4, groupement conjoint and solidaire, mandataire, sous-traitance, offre anormalement basse, avance, retenue de garantie, référé précontractuel and more.
Read the guideMarket access
Can companies from outside the EU bid for EU public tenders? Country by country
Which non-EU companies have a right to bid for public contracts in the EU, EEA and Switzerland in 2026: the 22 WTO GPA parties, trade agreements with procurement chapters (CETA, Japan, UK, Singapore, Viet Nam, Chile, New Zealand, Ukraine, Mercosur), what the EU Court's Kolin ruling means for Chinese, Indian and Turkish bidders, the China medical-devices exclusion, foreign-subsidy notifications, Russia sanctions, practical steps, and the proposed EU Public Procurement Act.
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