Contract Notice (CN)

The Contract Notice is the starting gun of a public procurement competition. When a contracting authority in an EU member state, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, or other European country bound by equivalent procurement rules wants to open a competition for a contract above the relevant EU threshold, it must publish a Contract Notice on TED. Everything that follows, shortlisting, evaluation, award, and contract signature, flows from this single document.

What is a Contract Notice (CN)?

A Contract Notice is defined under Directive 2014/24/EU (for general public contracts), Directive 2014/25/EU (for utilities), and Directive 2014/23/EU (for concessions). It must be published before the competition opens and must contain, at minimum: a description of the subject matter of the contract; the applicable procedure type; the time limits for receipt of tenders or requests to participate; the selection and award criteria; and contact details for obtaining tender documents.

Under eForms, the Contract Notice maps to specific notice subtypes within the competition notice family. The eForms SDK defines precisely which business term fields are mandatory, optional, or conditional for each subtype. The legacy equivalent was Standard Form 2.

The Contract Notice must be submitted to the Publications Office of the EU for publication on TED before it is published on any national or regional procurement portal. This "prior TED publication" rule prevents buyers from giving preferential early access to domestic suppliers. The notice receives a Notice Publication ID upon publication.

For procedures using a Prior Information Notice published at least 35 days in advance, the minimum tender period in an open procedure can be reduced from 35 to 15 days.

Why Contract Notices matter for bidders

The Contract Notice is the primary trigger for bid/no-bid decisions. It tells you what is being procured, who is buying it, what the rules of the competition are, and how long you have to respond. Reading it carefully is essential: the procedure type determines whether you submit a full tender immediately (open procedure) or first submit a request to participate (restricted procedure, competitive dialogue, innovation partnership).

The Contract Notice also sets out the award criteria and, in many cases, their weightings. These are legally binding once published; buyers cannot change them without issuing a Corrigendum Notice. A bidder who reads the award criteria at the Contract Notice stage and calibrates their response accordingly has a structural advantage over one who only reads the tender documents later.

Example

An Italian regional health authority publishes a Contract Notice on TED for the supply and maintenance of diagnostic imaging equipment, estimated value EUR 12 million, open procedure, 35-day tender period. The notice sets out three award criteria: technical specification compliance (40%), service response time (20%), and price (40%). Suppliers across Europe can now access the full tender documents via the link in the notice and begin preparing their submissions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a Contract Notice and an invitation to tender?

A Contract Notice is the public announcement on TED; an invitation to tender (ITT) is the detailed tender pack (specifications, pricing schedules, draft contract) that buyers issue to bidders who have expressed interest or, in open procedures, that is publicly available from the date of the Contract Notice. The Contract Notice triggers the process; the ITT contains the detail needed to bid.

What happens if a buyer needs to correct a Contract Notice after publication?

Corrections are published as a Corrigendum Notice. If the correction is material (for example, changing the deadline or scope), the tender period must typically be reset to give all bidders sufficient time to respond to the amended terms.

How quickly after publication do I need to act?

This depends on the procedure. In an open procedure, the minimum tender period is 35 days (or 15 days if a qualifying PIN was published). In a restricted procedure, you first have a minimum of 30 days to submit a request to participate. Missing the deadline means automatic exclusion in most cases, so monitoring Contract Notices in near-real time is important.