How to bid abroad · Europe
Bidding in Switzerland as a foreign company
Yes, for what Switzerland listed in its WTO annexes.
Whether a company established in the EU may bid in Switzerland is decided by one instrument, and this page names it rather than describing it.
Yes, for the procurement Switzerland listed. As a party to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, Switzerland committed to treat suppliers from the other parties, the EU among them, no less favourably than its own. What that covers is not the whole state: each party files annexes naming the buyers, the goods and services, and the value thresholds it opens, and anything outside those annexes is not covered by the agreement at all.
Instrument: WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, party since 1996.
Worth knowing: Switzerland also has a bilateral agreement with the EU on certain aspects of government procurement, in force since 1 June 2002, which carries the WTO commitments further, to communes and districts and to buyers in rail and in gas and heat supply among others.
Where you would register
The national channels in Switzerland. Registration rules are set by each one and change without notice, so treat these as the addresses to check, not as a list of what they will ask you for.
Who wins Swiss contracts from abroad
Switzerland is in neither the EU nor the EEA, and its official platform is simap.ch. Swiss buyers also publish on TED, the EU Official Journal: 4,274 award notices from January to September 2026. 12.2% of the 4,008 lots with a readable bid count drew a single tender, and on 5.4% of the 4,008 notices naming the winner's country at least one winner is based outside Switzerland, most often in Germany (67).
That is what Switzerland sends to TED, not Swiss procurement as a whole. It is counted on TED and not on simap.ch: TRINTA reads simap.ch with its own connector for its clients, but this site does not republish simap.ch data, whose API specification declares a proprietary licence.
| Winner's country | Award notices |
|---|---|
| Germany | 67 |
| France | 59 |
| Austria | 57 |
| Italy | 17 |
| South Korea | 7 |
Where the foreign winners come from
Bidding in Switzerland, step by step
Register on simap.ch
First a personal user profile, then, in the user menu at the top right, "Create organisation or request to join organisation": search for your company and click "Request to join organisation" or, if it does not appear, "Create new tenderer", which gives you the role of administrator for your company. That is the sequence simap.ch's English help describes.
Register interest and download the documents
On the notice's detail page, register interest; the documents are then available to download, and questions go through the platform's question-and-answer forum. Tender documentation is generally made available electronically (PPA Art. 48(2)).
Sources: simap.ch: help and frequently asked questions; Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), unofficial English translation, status 1 January 2026; simap.ch: statutes and general terms
Check that you may bid
Tenderers from Switzerland may bid, and so may tenderers from countries to which Switzerland has committed market access by treaty, within those commitments; outside the treaties, those whose country grants reciprocity or whom the contracting authority admits (PPA Art. 6, the same rule in IVöB Art. 6). For a company from the EU those commitments are the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, in force for Switzerland since 1 January 1996 and in its revised form since 1 January 2021, and the bilateral agreement on certain aspects of government procurement, in force since 1 June 2002. SECO keeps the list of countries, published on simap.ch (VöB Art. 1).
Sources: Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), unofficial English translation, status 1 January 2026; Intercantonal Agreement on Public Procurement (IVöB 2019), German text; Revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, Swiss record of entry into force; Agreement between Switzerland and the EC on certain aspects of government procurement; Public Procurement Ordinance (VöB), Art. 1 and 22, German text
Mind the language and the deadline
Federal buyers accept tenders, requests to participate and questions in German, French or Italian (VöB Art. 22); for any contract within the treaties that is not advertised in a WTO official language, the authority publishes a summary in one (PPA Art. 48(4)). Cantons and communes follow, outside the treaties, the language of the place where the contract is performed (IVöB Art. 48(5)). In an open procedure within the treaties at least 40 days run from the invitation to tender; outside them, generally at least 20 days (PPA Art. 46).
Sources: Public Procurement Ordinance (VöB), Art. 1 and 22, German text; Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), unofficial English translation, status 1 January 2026; Intercantonal Agreement on Public Procurement (IVöB 2019), German text
Submit the tender
Tenders are submitted in writing, complete and on time, and electronically where the invitation to tender provides for it (PPA Art. 34); on simap.ch, under the submissions tab. Every PDF uploaded there is checked by the federal signature validator for a valid qualified electronic signature under Swiss law (ZertES). simap.ch does not block files without one: whether one is required is set by the tender documents.
Sources: Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), unofficial English translation, status 1 January 2026; simap.ch: help and frequently asked questions
Meet the conditions of participation
For work performed in Switzerland, federal contracts go only to tenderers that comply with the occupational safety rules, working conditions and equal pay for women and men that apply where the work is done (PPA Art. 12); the authority may ask for a self-declaration as proof (Art. 26).
Sources: Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), unofficial English translation, status 1 January 2026
| What | Supplies and services | Construction work | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Confederation, within the treaties: open or selective procedure from | CHF 230,000 | CHF 8,700,000 | PPA, Annex 4 point 1 |
| Confederation, outside the treaties: open or selective procedure from | CHF 230,000 | CHF 2,000,000 | PPA, Annex 4 point 2 |
| Confederation, invitation procedure from | CHF 150,000 | CHF 300,000 | PPA, Annex 4 point 2 |
| Confederation, direct award below | CHF 150,000 | CHF 300,000 | PPA, Annex 4 point 2 |
| Cantons, within the treaties (WTO) from | 200,000 SDR | 5,000,000 SDR | IVöB 2019, Annex 1 |
| Cantons, open or selective procedure from | CHF 250,000 | CHF 500,000 | IVöB 2019, Annex 2 |
| Cantons, direct award below | CHF 150,000 | CHF 300,000 | IVöB 2019, Annex 2 |
Switzerland: thresholds for 2026 and 2027. The federal values are those of the central and decentralised federal administration (PPA Art. 4(1)); sector buyers have higher ones. For the cantons the construction column is main construction work; ancillary construction follows the supplies values. The cantonal treaty thresholds are given in special drawing rights (SDR), because the intercantonal body adjusts the franc amounts periodically (IVöB Art. 16).
Every step rests on an official text, read on 12 October 2026: simap.ch: help and frequently asked questions; Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA), unofficial English translation, status 1 January 2026; simap.ch: statutes and general terms; Intercantonal Agreement on Public Procurement (IVöB 2019), German text; Revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, Swiss record of entry into force; Agreement between Switzerland and the EC on certain aspects of government procurement; Public Procurement Ordinance (VöB), Art. 1 and 22, German text; simap.ch: API specification. This describes what those texts say; it is not legal advice, and the tender documents decide each procedure.
A right to bid is not a notice
The instrument above settles whether you may bid. It says nothing about whether you will ever see the tender. 4 sources publish public procurement in Switzerland, and 4 of them are read here every day. A company that registers on the national portal and stops there is watching one address out of 4.
Where the competition is thinnest in Switzerland
Across all procurement in Switzerland above the EU thresholds, 12.2% of 3,127 lots drew exactly one tender, against 35.9% for the EU as a whole. These are the five CPV divisions where that share is highest, which is where an entrant meets the least installed supply. It is not a ranking of how easy they are.
Tell us the markets, we send the map
Name the countries you are weighing up. You get back where public tenders are published in each one, how much of that we read every day, and what an EU company needs before it may bid there. An email, not a call.
Frequently asked questions
01Can a foreign company bid for public contracts in Switzerland?
Yes, for the procurement Switzerland listed. As a party to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement, Switzerland committed to treat suppliers from the other parties, the EU among them, no less favourably than its own. What that covers is not the whole state: each party files annexes naming the buyers, the goods and services, and the value thresholds it opens, and anything outside those annexes is not covered by the agreement at all. Switzerland also has a bilateral agreement with the EU on certain aspects of government procurement, in force since 1 June 2002, which carries the WTO commitments further, to communes and districts and to buyers in rail and in gas and heat supply among others.
02Where would a company register to bid in Switzerland?
simap.ch (https://www.simap.ch/), the procurement platform the Confederation and the cantons operate together. Those are the national channels. Beyond them, 4 sources in total publish public tenders in Switzerland, of which 4 are read by a dedicated connector on this site, so registering on the national portal alone leaves 0 publishing places unwatched.
03Does being a WTO member let an EU company bid in Switzerland?
Not by itself. WTO membership carries no procurement rights: the Agreement on Government Procurement is a separate, opt-in agreement, and Switzerland has opted in, which is why the answer here is yes. What it covers is still only what Switzerland listed in its own annexes.
04How do I register on simap.ch?
Create a personal user profile, then choose "Create organisation or request to join organisation" in the user menu: find your company and click "Request to join organisation", or, if it does not appear, "Create new tenderer", which makes you its administrator. To get a tender's documents, click "Register interest" on its detail page.
05In which language can I bid in Switzerland?
Federal buyers accept tenders in German, French or Italian (VöB Art. 22). Cantons and communes follow, outside the treaties, the language of the place where the contract is performed (IVöB Art. 48(5)).
What this does and does not say
It names the instrument that governs access and where the notices are published. It is not legal advice and it is not the tender documents, which are the only thing that binds a particular procedure: a buyer can require local registration, a local agent, a share of local content or a certificate no agreement overrides. Trade agreements also work through annexes, so the right they grant reaches the buyers and the thresholds those annexes list and stops there. Where this page says no instrument exists, that is not the same as saying a foreign firm cannot bid; it means nothing obliges the country to let it, and the tender documents decide. The source counts come from this site's platform registry, which maps 1,470 sources across 126 countries.