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TED (Tenders Electronic Daily)

TED is the official online platform of the European Union for publishing tenders for public contracts above the EU thresholds.

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What does TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) mean?

TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the European Union's central online database for public tenders. It serves as the official publication medium for notices of public contracts that reach or exceed the EU thresholds. TED is run by the Publications Office of the European Union and is freely accessible at ted.europa.eu.

Every day, TED publishes several hundred new notices from all EU member states as well as from the EEA countries and other countries that are subject to the EU procurement rules. The notices come in different types, including prior information notices, contract notices, contract award notices and corrigenda. The platform offers extensive search and filter functions that let users search specifically for contracts in certain industries, regions or with certain CPV codes.

With the introduction of eForms as the new standard format for EU notices, TED has gone through a fundamental modernization. eForms replace the previous standard forms and allow more structured, machine-readable data capture. This makes notices easier to search and allows better statistical analysis of the European procurement market.

Relevance for bidders

For bidders, TED is the most important source of information for EU-wide tenders. Monitoring TED regularly is one of the basic requirements of a successful business development strategy in the public sector. Companies can set up search profiles and get notified of new notices by email.

Using TED lets bidders learn about tender opportunities early and plan enough lead time for preparing their bids. TED is an essential tool especially for companies that want to work across borders. Bidders should use the advanced search functions and narrow their search precisely by CPV codes, NUTS codes and contract types to find relevant tenders efficiently.

Legal framework

The duty to publish on TED follows from EU Procurement Directives 2014/24/EU (Articles 49 et seq.) and 2014/25/EU (Articles 67 et seq.). In Germany, Section 37 VgV (Public Procurement Ordinance) governs the publication obligations above the EU thresholds. EU Implementing Regulation 2019/1780 sets the eForms standards for notices. TED also serves as proof of proper publication and as the start of the deadlines for submitting bids and requests to participate.

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TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) in practice.

Related terms

Sustainable procurement
Sustainable procurement means building environmental, social and economic criteria into public procurement procedures.
Tender documents
Tender documents are all the documents that the contracting authority provides to bidders for preparing their bid.
eForms
eForms are the European standardized electronic forms for publishing notices in public procurement.
Contract notice
The contract notice is the public announcement of a tender that opens the competition and invites companies to submit bids.
Thresholds
Thresholds are the contract value limits set by law above which public contracts must be tendered under the stricter EU procurement law.
NUTS codes
NUTS codes are a hierarchical system for classifying regions in the EU geographically. In public procurement, they are used to state where a contract is performed.
Tender portal (Vergabeportal)
A tender portal is an electronic platform that contracting authorities use to publish tenders and handle all procurement communication.
GAEB
GAEB is a standardized data format for the electronic exchange of bills of quantities and bid data in construction.
AVPQ (official register of prequalified companies)
The AVPQ is an official register in which companies can prove their general suitability for public supply and service contracts in advance and have it recorded.