Foreign Company: Bidding on French Public Tenders

French public procurement law prohibits nationality-based discrimination for contracts above EU thresholds. In practice, an American, Canadian, British, German, or Japanese company can bid on the same contracts as a French SME.

For contracts below EU thresholds, buyers can technically restrict access, but this is rare. The vast majority of French public contracts are open to foreign companies, subject to trade reciprocity agreements (WTO GPA, bilateral treaties).

Before responding to a French tender, you'll need:

A company registration number — Your national ID is sufficient (EIN for the US, Company Number for the UK, Handelsregister for Germany). You don't need a French SIRET number to bid.

Tax and social compliance certificates — Equivalent in your country of certificates issued by tax authorities and social security bodies. A certified translation may be required.

Professional liability insurance — Covering the activity subject to the contract. Foreign policies are accepted if they cover French territory.

A bank account — To receive payments. A European IBAN makes things easier but is not mandatory.

French public tenders use standardized forms that don't exist in other countries. Here's what each one means:

DC1 (Application Letter) — Equivalent to a Bid Cover Letter. Formally declares your intent to participate and identifies your company and any consortium members.

DC2 (Candidate Declaration) — Equivalent to Representations & Certifications (US) or a Qualification Statement. Certifies your financial, technical, and professional capabilities.

ESPD / DUME — The European Single Procurement Document. If you're in the EU, you may know this already. It replaces DC1 + DC2 for European-threshold contracts.

AE (Engagement Act) — Equivalent to the Bid Form or Offer Form. The binding contractual document committing you to the contract terms (pricing, deadlines, conditions).

DPGF / DQE — Detailed pricing schedules. Equivalent to a Bill of Quantities (BOQ) or Schedule of Rates. You enter your unit and lump-sum prices here.

Important: submission documents must be written in French. This is a regulatory requirement for French public contracts. Your technical proposal, administrative documents, and pricing offer must all be in French.

Maître AO automatically generates all documents in French, even if your interface is in English. The DCE analysis is available in your language so you understand the requirements, but the response documents produced comply with French language obligations.

Maître AO was designed to be usable by companies from any country:

Adapted company profile — The form detects your country and shows relevant fields (EIN instead of SIRET, Company Number instead of RCS, local currency for share capital).

DCE analysis in your language — The AI analyzes the consultation documents and presents the summary, requirements, scoring criteria, and Go/No-Go assessment in your language.

Official documents in French — DC1, DC2, DUME, AE, DPGF, DQE are generated in French with your foreign company information properly integrated.

Bilingual technical proposal — The proposal is generated in French (mandatory for submission) and can be translated into your language for internal review.

Plan ahead — Certified translations, document legalization, and currency conversions take time. Start your preparations as soon as the tender is published.

Consider a consortium — Partnering with a French company (joint bidding) strengthens your application. The local partner brings market knowledge; you bring technical expertise.

Highlight relevant references — French buyers value similar past projects. Present your closest matching projects, even if they were completed in another country.

Address logistics early — Execution location, response times, on-site availability: anticipate the buyer's questions about your ability to deliver in France from abroad.