What does contract notice mean?
The contract notice (Auftragsbekanntmachung) is the central instrument for creating transparency in the procurement procedure. It is the formal publication of a procurement project and marks the start of the competition. The notice informs potential bidders about the subject matter of the contract, the suitability requirements, the award criteria, the deadlines and the procedure type. Without a proper notice, a procurement procedure above the thresholds generally cannot be carried out with legal effect.
For procurements above the EU thresholds, the contract notice must be published in the Supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union via the TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) platform. Since the eForms requirement took effect, notices are created and transmitted in a standardized electronic format. In the national below-threshold range, publication on suitable tender portals or in official gazettes used to be enough, and electronic portals are increasingly used here as well.
The notice must contain certain mandatory information, including the name of the contracting authority, the description of the contract, the CPV codes, the estimated contract value (where allowed), suitability and award criteria, deadlines and details of the procedure. The quality and completeness of the notice are essential, because it forms the basis for companies to decide whether to take part in the tender.
Relevance for bidders
For bidders, systematically monitoring contract notices is essential to identify relevant tenders early. Many companies use specialized monitoring services or the search functions of tender portals and TED for this. The notice contains all the key information needed for a first assessment of whether to participate, including suitability requirements, technical specifications and deadlines.
Bidders should review the notice carefully and ask bidder questions early if anything is unclear or may contradict the procurement documents. Errors or inadmissible requirements in the notice can also be grounds for review proceedings if they restrict competition.
Legal framework
The obligation to publish a notice follows from Sections 37 and 38 VgV (Public Procurement Ordinance) for EU-wide procedures and from the provisions of the UVgO (Sub-Threshold Procurement Rules) below the thresholds. At European level, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 governs the standard forms (eForms). The content of the notice is defined by Annex V of EU Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU.