Bid Opening Deadline in Procurement Law 2026

Bid Opening Deadline: The scheduled time for opening bids in a procurement procedure – deadline rules, postponement and legal consequences.

Definition: The bid opening deadline is the time set in the procurement documents at which the public contracting authority opens the bids received (bid opening). It also marks the expiry of the bid submission period by which bids must be submitted.

Last updated: January 2026 · Legal status: BVergG 2018 §§ 116 et seq., VOB/A § 14, VgV § 55, Directive 2014/24/EU Art. 47 et seq.

Function and significance

The bid opening deadline is the formal heart of the procurement procedure: it separates the bid preparation phase from the bid examination phase and marks the moment from which no bid may be submitted or amended. Strict compliance with the bid opening deadline ensures equal treatment of all bidders: those who submit their bid on time have no opportunity to adjust it after learning of competing bids.

Minimum periods for the bid submission deadline

EU procurement law provides mandatory minimum periods for the bid submission deadline, which run up to the bid opening deadline. These periods ensure that bidders have sufficient time to prepare their bids:

Type of procedure	Standard period (days from dispatch of the contract notice)
Open procedure	35 days
Restricted procedure (bid period)	30 days
Accelerated procedure (in cases of urgency)	15 days

Through electronic notification and electronic provision of the documents, the periods can be shortened by 5 days each.

Postponement of the bid opening deadline

The contracting authority may postpone the bid opening deadline if this is required on objective grounds, for example when:

Bidder questions require a material change to the specifications
Technical problems arise with the provision of the procurement documents
A case of force majeure occurs

A postponement must be announced in good time so that all bidders are made aware of it.

Electronic bid opening deadline

In electronic procurement procedures, there is no longer a physical opening act; instead, the bids are released automatically by the procurement platform to the contracting authority at the scheduled time. Confidentiality of the bids up to the bid opening deadline is ensured through encryption.

Related terms

FAQ

What happens if a bidder submits its bid one minute after the bid opening deadline? It must be treated as late and may not be included in the evaluation. There are no exceptions.

Can the bid opening deadline be postponed retrospectively at a bidder's request? The contracting authority may postpone it, but is not obliged to react to bidder requests. A postponement is at the contracting authority's discretion and must be objectively justified.

Does the bid opening deadline also count as the end of the bid submission period? Yes. The bid opening deadline and the end of the bid submission period coincide.

Last updated: January 2026 All information without guarantee. For legally binding advice, please consult a law firm specialising in procurement law.