What does ex-post notice mean?
The ex-post notice (Ex-post Bekanntmachung), also called a contract award notice (Vergabebekanntmachung or Zuschlagsbekanntmachung), is a mandatory publication that reports the result of the contract award after a procurement procedure has been completed. The term ex post (Latin for afterward) indicates that this notice is published after the contract has been awarded. It serves transparency and allows market participants and the public to review the award decision afterward.
In EU-wide procurement procedures, the ex-post notice is mandatory and must be sent to TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) within 30 days of the award. It contains key information about the completed procedure, including the name of the company awarded the contract, the contract value, the number of bids received, the award criteria applied and the procedure chosen. For contracts divided into lots, the information is given separately for each lot.
The ex-post notice serves several functions: it informs the market about completed procurements, allows statistical analysis of public procurement, promotes transparency and can serve as a basis for planning future participation in similar tenders. The information in the ex-post notice can also provide indications of possible breaches of procurement law.
Relevance for bidders
For bidders, ex-post notices are a valuable source of information. They allow an analysis of the competitive environment, because they reveal the number of competitors, the price level and the award criteria of past procedures. You can draw on this information for pricing and strategic positioning in future tenders.
Companies that did not win the contract can use the ex-post notice to check whether the procedure was conducted properly. Especially for awards without a prior notice, the ex-post publication can be a reason for a closer review. By analyzing ex-post notices, bidders can also spot trends and patterns at certain contracting authorities and adjust their acquisition strategy accordingly.
Legal framework
The obligation to publish an ex-post notice follows from Section 39 VgV (Public Procurement Ordinance) in conjunction with Article 50 of EU Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU. The deadline for transmission is 30 days after the award. The format follows the eForms Regulation (EU) 2019/1780. For framework agreements, the ex-post notice for the individual contracts awarded in a quarter must be published no later than 30 days after the end of that quarter. Below the EU thresholds, there is no general obligation to publish an ex-post notice.