Public contracts - Luxembourg

Updated 01/2010

Legal requirements

Public contracts must follow certain legal principles, including transparency, equal treatment of competitors and equal opportunities.

Principles of public contracts

You can find the basic rules of public contract law in Luxembourg the Law on public contracts.

Law on public contracts
Regulation implementing the Law on public contracts [362 KB]

Types of public procurement

There are several types of procedure for awarding public contracts:

Normal procedures, which include the public tender and restricted tender with publication of a notice;
Exceptional procedures, which include the negotiated contract and the restricted tender without publication of a notice.
Types of procedure
Normal procedures
Exceptional procedures
Choosing between a negotiated contract and restricted tender without publication of a notice

Tendering procedure: step-by-step guide

A public contract bid includes specifications to guarantee that the operators meet the requirements. Price is not the only criterion; quality criteria such as time taken to complete the contract and after-sales services are also taken into account. If a company considers it has been unfairly treated, it may lodge an appeal.

Ministry of public works
Procedures for awarding public contracts

Types of public contracts

Public contracts are made between a business owner, supplier or service provider and an awarding authority (e.g. state, local and regional authorities, or institutions governed by public law). The contracts relate to carrying out works, supplying products or providing services.

There are different types of public contracts:

award by separate trade associations (one contract for each association);
award by lots (subdivision of services within a single trade association);
award as a general project (covers all associations involved in a project).

National public procurement authorities

The public contracts portal publishes the notices of all the procedures for which publication in the national press and possibly also the Official Journal of the European Union is mandatory.

Public contracts portal

Administrative procedures

Submitting tenders

As a rule, the granting authorities place their public contracts for works, goods and services by an open procedure. They may make exceptions to this rule by applying:

a restricted procedure with publication of notice ;
a restricted procedure without publication of notice ;
a negotiated procedure.
Normal procedures

Contractors must send their tender file to the awarding authority.

Tender file

Framework agreements set out the conditions governing the contracts to be awarded in a given period.

Framework agreement

Special procedures

Under certain specific conditions, the awarding authority may opt for an exceptional procedure.

It is possible to opt for a negotiated procedure or a restricted procedure without publication of notice.

Exceptional procedures
Negotiated procedure or restricted procedure with publication of notice
Negotiated procedure
Negotiated procedure with or without prior publication
Competitive dialogue

Resources

The public contracts portal and the Chamber of Trades both publish notices. There is also a special portal for construction contracts: the Luxembourg construction portal.

Notices of tenders - Public contracts portal
Public tenders - Chamber of Trades
Luxembourg construction portal

The Grand Duchy also provides services to companies on its public contracts portal, particularly on the page dedicated to notices of contracts.

Public contracts portal

To receive the latest information on public contracts, you can subscribe to the portal's alert service.

Subscribing to the alert service

Check also the legislation on this topic in:

Public contracts - Luxembourg