Responding to a French tender, step by step.

The process at a glance

Step 1: Set up alerts

• BOAMP (boamp.fr) publishes French public tenders. Searching and reading are free, with no account needed.
• For email alerts, create a free account at compte.boamp.fr, with an email address or FranceConnect. You can have up to 10 active alerts and unlimited saved searches.
• Filter by keyword, CPV code, département, type of contract (works, supplies, services) and value.
• BOAMP also has an open-data API (boamp.fr/pages/api-boamp/).
• Tip: set one alert per CPV family and region. Each notice links to the buyer’s platform, where the full documents are.
• Above EU thresholds, tenders also appear on TED. See how to bid for EU tenders on TED.

Step 2: Register on the buyer platforms

PLACE (marches-publics.gouv.fr) is the State’s platform, and it’ll become mandatory for State buyers by 2030.

1. Click “Inscrivez-vous” on the home page.
2. French companies enter their SIREN or SIRET, and the platform fills in their details from the national register.
3. Companies not established in France choose their country under “Pays/Territoires” and enter a national identifier: a company registration number, a DUNS number or another local number. This field is mandatory.
4. The first user becomes the company administrator.
5. Upload your recurring documents to the company vault (“Coffre-fort”): tax and social security certificates, insurance, and your company register extract or its foreign equivalent. You can reuse them in each bid.
6. Set up saved searches and email alerts.
7. Test your setup on a test consultation before your first real bid.

Other platforms: local authorities and hospitals use their own platforms. Maximilien (Île-de-France) and Mégalis Bretagne use the same software as PLACE; others, such as marches-publics.info, work similarly. An account on one platform doesn’t carry over, so register on each one you need. Answering tenders is free on all of them; paid services are optional monitoring add-ons.

Step 3: Download the documents (DCE)

• The tender documents must be free, complete, direct and unrestricted.
• Download while logged in. That way you’re notified of changes and receive the answers to other bidders’ questions.
• The documents usually include:
  • the tender rules (règlement de consultation, RC);
  • the administrative and technical specifications (CCAP and CCTP);
  • the price schedule;
  • the award commitment form (ATTRI1), where supplied.

Step 4: Ask questions

• Use the platform’s secure messaging. Answers are shared anonymously with everyone who downloaded the documents.
• In formal procedures, the buyer must answer at least 6 days before the bid deadline (4 days if the deadline was shortened for urgency), as long as you asked in good time.
• In simplified procedures (MAPA), the RC sets the question deadline.
• Check the RC for its own cut-off date; it’s often earlier.

Step 5: Build your file

The application (candidature):

• Use the DUME (European Single Procurement Document), which buyers must accept whatever the contract value. Fill it in on the buyer’s platform or with the standalone tool at dume.chorus-pro.gouv.fr.
• Or use the French forms DC1 (application letter) and DC2 (bidder’s statement).
• Add a DC4 for each subcontractor.

The offer:

• Technical proposal (mémoire technique): answer each award criterion, using the buyer’s response template if there is one.
• Price: use the buyer’s own schedule:
  • BPU (unit price list), often with a DQE (estimated quantities) for unit-price contracts;
  • DPGF (lump-sum price breakdown) for lump-sum works.
• Never change the template’s lines or quantities.
• ATTRI1: complete it if supplied.

Language: bids are in French. Foreign certificates need a French translation.

Step 6: Sign, if required

• Signature is usually only required from the winner, at award. A buyer can require it at submission in the RC, though the ministry’s legal department advises against it.
• When you sign:
  • use an advanced signature based on a qualified certificate, or a qualified signature;
  • formats: XAdES, CAdES or PAdES;
  • any signing tool is fine.
• Foreign certificates are accepted if they’re on an EU trusted list, or come from a foreign authority meeting requirements equivalent to the eIDAS Regulation.
• Sign each file individually. Signing only the zip has been held insufficient.

Step 7: Submit

1. Check your setup and certificate on a test consultation.
2. Upload one file per document: PDF where possible, and spreadsheet format for price schedules if the RC asks.
3. Sign if required.
4. Submit well before the deadline. At least a day early is safe practice.
5. Download and keep the receipt. It shows who submitted, the buyer, the tender, the date and time received, and the full list of files.

Late bids are eliminated, and an upload still running at the deadline counts as late.

The backup copy (copie de sauvegarde) is optional insurance:

• send it on paper or physical electronic media, in a sealed envelope marked “copie de sauvegarde”, and it must arrive before the deadline;
• electronic delivery is allowed only if the documents say so;
• it’s opened only if your electronic bid contains malware, can’t be opened, or arrived late or incomplete after transmission started before the deadline. Otherwise it’s destroyed.

Step 8: After submission

• Negotiation:
  • in an MAPA, only if the documents provide for it, and the buyer can still award on initial offers if it reserved the right;
  • in an open call for tenders, only clarification.
• Fixing your file:
  • the buyer can ask you to complete missing application documents, with the same deadline for everyone;
  • irregular offers can sometimes be regularised, unless abnormally low;
  • if your price looks abnormally low, the buyer must ask you to justify it.
• Rejection letter:
  • it gives the reasons;
  • if sent after award, it also names the winner, explains why their offer was chosen and gives the earliest signing date (the standstill period).
• Ask for more: within 15 days of your request, the buyer must give the characteristics and relative advantages of the winning offer. In an MAPA, you can ask for the reasons for rejection, and if your offer was compliant the buyer also gives the winner’s name and advantages, within 15 days.
• Ask during the standstill period, so you can decide whether to challenge before the contract is signed.

Step 9: If you win

• Send the winner’s certificates within the buyer’s deadline:

  • social security certificate (URSSAF attestation de vigilance);
  • tax certificate;
  • company register extract.

  If you don’t, your offer is rejected and the next bidder is asked.

• French companies: platforms can often fetch these automatically.

• Foreign companies: provide your home authorities’ equivalents with a French translation, or a sworn statement where your country doesn’t issue them.

• During the contract, social security certificates must be renewed every six months. Many buyers collect them through a third-party service or the vault.

• Advance payment:

  • mandatory for contracts over €50,000 excluding VAT lasting more than two months;
  • at least 5%, normally up to 30%;
  • SMEs get at least 30% on State contracts, and at least 10% with State administrative bodies and local authorities spending more than €60 million a year;
  • claim it, or decline it, in the ATTRI1.

Step 10: Invoice through Chorus Pro

Suppliers established outside France have had to invoice French public buyers electronically since 1 January 2020.

1. Create a user account on chorus-pro.gouv.fr.
2. Create your company “structure”:
   • EU companies outside France: your intra-EU VAT number;
   • non-EU companies: your country and company name. Chorus Pro generates an identifier from the country code and the first 16 characters of the name.
3. Add your address and contacts. Whoever creates the structure becomes its primary manager and approves later users.
4. Activate the issued invoices area.
5. Submit invoices by manual entry, by uploading Factur-X, UBL or CII files, or through EDI or API.
6. Fill in the buyer’s SIRET, the service code if required, the legal commitment (EJ) number and the contract number. A missing or wrong EJ number is the top cause of rejected invoices.

Twelve common mistakes

1. Uploading in the last hour.
2. Signing only the zip, or using a non-qualified certificate.
3. Changing the price schedule’s lines or quantities.
4. Downloading anonymously and missing changes or answers.
5. Forgetting a DC4 for each subcontractor.
6. Ignoring the RC’s required file list and naming rules.
7. Sending untranslated foreign certificates.
8. Letting certificates in your vault expire.
9. Not testing your setup before the real bid.
10. Leaving the EJ number or service code blank in Chorus Pro.
11. Not asking for reasons during the standstill period.
12. Assuming one monitoring site covers every buyer platform.

What changed in 2025–2026

• Decree 2024-1251 (in force 1 January 2025):
  • the minimum SME share in global contracts rose from 10% to 20%;
  • retention for SMEs was capped at 3% at more buyers;
  • consortia can change composition during negotiation.
• Decree 2025-1383 (29 December 2025): the cap on minimum turnover requirements fell from 2 times to 1.5 times the contract value.
• Decree 2025-1386 (29 December 2025): contracts can be awarded without competition up to €100,000 for works (from 1 January 2026) and €60,000 for supplies and services (from 1 April 2026).
• A law of May 2026 makes PLACE mandatory for State buyers by 2030.
• France’s e-invoicing reform began on 1 September 2026. Invoices to public buyers still go through Chorus Pro.

For the wider rules, see how to bid for public contracts in France and the French procurement glossary.

Live French tenders

Questions

Sources

• BOAMP: official public procurement bulletin
• PLACE: the State’s procurement platform
• Chorus Pro: creating a structure (supplier account)
• DUME: the electronic European Single Procurement Document service
• Public Procurement Code (Légifrance)
• Collectivités locales: the DUME

This guide explains the rules in plain English; it isn’t legal advice. Procurement rules change, and each tender document sets its own conditions — it always prevails.