TED Database in Procurement Law 2026

TED Database: Europe's central tendering database for EU-wide procurement notices – function, content, access and significance for bidders and contracting authorities.

Definition: The TED Database (Tenders Electronic Daily) is the official European online database for public tenders, updated daily as the supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union. It contains all procurement procedures of public contracting authorities subject to EU-wide publication obligations, from EU Member States, EEA states and further countries.

Last updated: January 2026 · Legal status: Directive 2014/24/EU, Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1780 (eForms), Regulation (EU) 2016/589 (EURES)

What is TED?

TED – Tenders Electronic Daily – is the electronic supplement to the Official Journal of the European Union and the central platform for the publication of EU-wide public tenders. The database is operated by the Publications Office of the European Union and updated daily with new notices. TED is accessible to all public contracting authorities in the EU, the EEA (Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland), Switzerland and further partner countries.

Scope and use

TED contains several thousand new tender notices from across Europe every day, thereby making public procurement in the European internal market transparent. Over 750,000 notices are published annually, representing a contract volume of several hundred billion euros. Companies from all Member States can access TED free of charge and search for contracts matching their service profile.

Types of notices in TED

TED contains various types of procurement notices covering different phases of the procurement procedure:

Prior Information Notice (PIN): Announcement of a planned procurement; does not yet trigger a procurement obligation, but may shorten deadlines.
Contract Notice: The actual tender notice; marks the start of the procurement procedure.
Contract Award Notice: Publication of the result after contract award.
Notice of Contract Modifications: Mandatory notice for material contract changes.
Voluntary Ex-Ante Transparency Notice (VEAT): Optional advance notice for direct awards.

eForms and the new TED platform

With effect from October 2023, the European Commission introduced the new eForms system, which replaces the previous standard PDF forms with machine-readable, structured data forms. The new eNotices2 platform enables contracting authorities to create and submit eForms notices directly to TED. The new TED search interface (ted.europa.eu) supports searching for eForms notices with improved filter options.

Searching the TED database

Bidders can search the TED database free of charge, filter by CPV codes, apply geographic filters and set up notifications for specific search profiles. The search is directly available via ted.europa.eu. In addition, many commercial providers offer TED-based tender services with additional filter functions and automatic email notifications.

Significance for contracting authorities

For contracting authorities, the TED notice above the thresholds is a legal obligation. Anyone awarding a contract without publishing the required TED notice commits a de facto award, which may lead to the contract becoming ineffective. The notice is published in the contracting authority's official language and as a short version in all official EU languages.

Related terms

FAQ

Is TED chargeable? No. Access to TED is free of charge for all users. Submission of notices by contracting authorities is also free of charge.

In which language must TED notices be drafted? Contracting authorities are required to publish the notice in their official language. A short version (summary) must be provided in another official EU language; the European Commission machine-translates the summaries into all EU official languages.

How quickly does a notice appear in TED after submission? Notices are usually published in TED within five calendar days of submission.

Can a contracting authority correct a published notice? Yes. Corrigenda can be published in TED. However, material changes may require an extension of the bid submission deadline.

What is the difference between TED and the German DTVP or the Austrian tender portal? TED is the European publication platform for EU-wide procurements; DTVP and Austrian platforms are national platforms that also contain national and regional tenders and are usually connected to TED.

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