How to bid for public tenders in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg at a glance

Where tenders appear

• The portal. All notices, documents, questions and electronic bids are on the national procurement portal, pmp.b2g.etat.lu (branded pmp.lu), and guidance is on marches.public.lu. Contracts above EU thresholds are also on TED.
• Searching is open, and email alerts are available. Submitting needs a free account.
• Electronic only. E-submission is mandatory for contracts above EU thresholds.
• Who runs it. The Ministry of Mobility and Public Works runs the portal with the State IT centre. A redesign of both sites was announced in September 2026.
• A complaints commission. The Commission des soumissions, of buyers and professional chambers, hears complaints, but its opinions aren’t binding.

Thresholds and procedures

Luxembourg’s national amounts are re-indexed every 1 January. These are the 2026 values, excluding VAT.

• Lots. Lots under EUR 80,000 (goods and services) or EUR 1 million (works) can use national rules, if they add up to no more than 20% of the contract. Contracts covering several trades are usually split by trade, unless a general contractor is used.
• National open procedures need at least 42 days, or 27 for minor contracts, each 5 days shorter with electronic submission. Justified urgency allows 15 days.
• EU-level open procedures need at least 35 days (30 with e-submission). Restricted procedures need 30 days to ask to take part, then 30 to bid.
• Bid validity. Bids normally stay binding until the award, due within 2 months of opening (5 months at most for large contracts).
• Frameworks last up to 4 years (8 for utilities).

Who can bid

• No local entity or registration is needed to bid, and legal form can’t be a reason to reject you. Consortia can bid without forming a company. They sign a joint-and-several undertaking naming a lead representative.
• Treaty partners. Above EU thresholds, companies from WTO GPA countries and other EU agreement partners must be treated as well as EU ones on covered contracts.
• Everyone else. After the EU Court’s Kolin ruling (2024), companies from countries without an EU procurement agreement have no right to equal treatment.
• Utilities. Utility buyers may reject a supply bid if more than half its products come from non-agreement countries.
• Non-EEA winners. A buyer may require a deposit from a winner based outside the EEA.
• Language. The bid must be in the language of the tender documents, usually French or German, unless they allow otherwise. The buyer can require sworn translations into French, German or Luxembourgish at your cost.
• Proving eligibility.
  • ESPD. Above EU thresholds, buyers must accept the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD); below, the documents may allow it.
  • Certificates. The likely winner, and its subcontractors, provide Luxembourg social-security, direct-tax and VAT certificates, dated within 3 months. A bidder not established in Luxembourg also provides home-country equivalents. You get at least 15 days.
• Business permits, before you start work.
  • EEA and Swiss firms can provide occasional services without a Luxembourg establishment. Craft and industrial firms, including most construction trades, must first notify the Ministry of the Economy: EUR 50, valid 12 months.
  • Firms from outside the EEA and Switzerland need a Luxembourg establishment permit (autorisation d’établissement), even for occasional work.
  • Posted workers must be declared to the Labour Inspectorate (ITM) through e-Détachement.

Bidding, step by step

1. Find opportunities on pmp.b2g.etat.lu, or TED for EU-level contracts, and set up email alerts.
2. Create a portal account. You can log in with LuxTrust, the Luxembourg eID, a notified EU eIDAS identity, or a username and password.
3. Get a qualified e-signature (LuxTrust, the Luxembourg eID, or an EU Trusted List certificate) and install the portal’s signing tool.
4. Download the documents. Check the language, lots, variants, guarantees and whether the ESPD is accepted.
5. Ask questions in time. Above EU thresholds, answers are due at least 6 days before the deadline.
6. Prepare the bid on the buyer’s price schedule, in euros, excluding VAT. Attach the ESPD or evidence, and a consortium undertaking if needed.
7. Sign and submit electronically before the deadline. Signing the offer is mandatory.
8. If you’re the likely winner, provide your certificates within the deadline (at least 15 days). If asked to justify your prices, you also get at least 15 days.
9. Watch the standstill (see below).
10. Before starting, file the services notification or establishment permit, declare posted workers, and register for VAT where needed.
11. Invoice electronically via Peppol or MyGuichet.lu; invoices by email aren’t accepted.

Securities and payment

• No general bid bond. We found no general bid-bond rule; guarantees and insurance are set tender by tender.
• Retention. 10% of interim payments for works and supplies is held back. At your request, it can be replaced by a bank guarantee or a mutual-guarantee-society guarantee.
• Advance payments need a guarantee and are capped at 25% (40% exceptionally).
• Payment. The buyer has 28 days to object to the final invoice. Late-payment interest is due from 30 days after receipt of the invoice, goods or services, or after acceptance.
• E-invoicing. Mandatory for public contracts since 18 March 2023, via Peppol or MyGuichet.lu only.

How bids are evaluated

• Best value. Contracts go to the most economically advantageous tender, on price, cost or price-quality ratio, with weightings published.
• Abnormally low bids need an explanation, and are rejected if they breach environmental, social or labour law.
• The 15% rule. Below EU thresholds, with at least 5 valid bids, any bid more than 15% below the average (excluding the highest and lowest) must be asked for a price analysis.
• Local preference. A municipality may prefer a bidder resident in the commune for small contracts, if its price is no more than 5% higher.
• Reserved contracts. Some contracts can be reserved for sheltered workshops. We found no national SME quota.

Challenging a decision

• Standstill.
  • EU-level contracts: at least 10 days after an electronic award notice (15 otherwise).
  • National contracts: at least 15 days after losing bidders are notified.
• Interim relief. The President of the Administrative Tribunal can order provisional measures, such as suspending the procedure or striking discriminatory specifications. Once you apply, the buyer must suspend the procedure or award until the order, and can’t sign until both the order and the standstill have passed.
• Annulment. An action to annul the award goes to the Administrative Tribunal, then the Administrative Court. A 2020 law-firm review gives a 3-month limit, with a lawyer required.
• Ineffectiveness. A contract can be declared ineffective, for example after an illegal direct award, within 30 days or 6 months depending on the notice given.
• Informal complaints. You can also complain to the Commission des soumissions; its opinion isn’t binding.

What changed in 2025–2026

• 2024 (still relevant): the no-justification threshold rose from EUR 60,000 to EUR 79,000.
• December 2025: the portal’s signing tool was replaced, and the 2026 EU thresholds were published.
• 1 January 2026: new EU thresholds took effect, and the national amounts were re-indexed.
• September 2026:
  • EU reform: the European Commission proposed a single EU procurement regulation to replace the 2014 directives. It’s only a proposal so far.
  • Portal redesign: Luxembourg announced a redesign of its procurement portal.

Live Luxembourg tenders

See also how companies from outside the EU can bid for EU tenders and how to bid for EU public tenders on TED.

Questions

Sources

• Law of 8 April 2018 on public procurement (Legilux)
• Grand-Ducal Regulation of 8 April 2018 (Legilux)
• marches.public.lu: thresholds
• marches.public.lu: authentication and e-signature
• Public procurement portal (pmp.lu)
• guichet.lu: notifying occasional services in Luxembourg

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.