How to bid on public tenders in Sweden

Sweden has no single national tender portal. Authorities publish notices in an annonsdatabas (advertising database) registered with Konkurrensverket, the Swedish Competition Authority, and contracts above the EU thresholds also appear in TED.

In October 2026, Konkurrensverket’s register lists five databases: e-Avrop, KommersAnnons.se, Mercell Annonsdatabas, Konstpool and Clira Annonsdatabas. Each advertised procurement gets a national procurement ID made up of the database’s letter code and a serial number, which makes it easier to recognise the same tender on different platforms. Direct awards (direktupphandling) are generally not advertised.

The main law is Lagen om offentlig upphandling (LOU, 2016:1145), the Public Procurement Act, with separate acts for utilities (LUF), concessions (LUK) and defence (LUFS). Upphandlingsmyndigheten, the National Agency for Public Procurement, publishes guidance, and Konkurrensverket supervises authorities and can fine them.

The thresholds in SEK have applied since 1 January 2026:

Contract type (LOU)	EUR	SEK
Supplies and services, central government	140,000	1,589,140
Supplies and services, other authorities	216,000	2,451,816
Works	5,404,000	61,340,804
Social and other specific services	750,000	8,513,250
Utilities (LUF), supplies and services	432,000	4,903,632

Below these thresholds, simplified national procedures in LOU apply. Direct awards based on contract value are allowed below SEK 700,000 under LOU (SEK 1,200,000 under LUF), and only on narrow other grounds above that.

Two recent reforms affect bidders directly. Since 1 July 2025, LOU states expressly that suppliers can seek review and damages when an authority breaches EU procurement rules, such as the International Procurement Instrument, and bid costs can be claimed as damages if a breach has reduced the supplier’s chance of winning. As before, a procurement cannot be reviewed once the contract has been signed.

Since 1 July 2026, authorities can ask Bolagsverket, the Companies Registration Office, for a coordinated register check (samordnad registerkontroll) of criminal records, tax debts and insolvency. The check does not apply to foreign suppliers, so they will generally still have to prove the same points with documents from their home country.

On 9 September 2026 the European Commission proposed an EU Public Procurement Act (COM(2026) 590), a regulation that would replace the directives behind LOU, LUF and LUK. It is still being negotiated.

The tender documents must state which language the bid is to be written in. Most Swedish tenders are written in Swedish, so expect to answer in Swedish unless another language such as English is expressly allowed.

Above the EU thresholds, authorities must accept the ESPD (European Single Procurement Document) as preliminary evidence and may make it mandatory. Below the thresholds, check the tender documents for which self-declaration is accepted. Supporting certificates are generally requested from the bidder about to be awarded the contract, although the authority may ask for them earlier, so order home-country documents on taxes and criminal records in good time. If you rely on another company’s capacity, that company also submits an ESPD.

Depending on what it sells and whether its staff work in Sweden, a foreign company performing a contract in Sweden may have to register with Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, for VAT, as an employer or both. Skatteverket also issues F-skatt (F-tax approval). If a contractor does not hold it, the client must deduct preliminary tax from payments for the work.

Employers posting workers to Sweden must report the posting to Arbetsmiljöverket, the Work Environment Authority, no later than when the posted worker starts work in Sweden, and appoint a contact person in Sweden. Failing to report the posting or to name a contact person can each lead to a sanction fee of SEK 20,000.

Where needed, authorities must require wages, holidays and working hours at least at the level of the relevant Swedish central collective agreement, and these conditions also apply to subcontractors directly involved in the contract.

The key deadline is the standstill period (avtalsspärr) after the award decision: 10 days if the decision is sent electronically and 15 days otherwise. A request for review should reach the förvaltningsrätt (administrative court) where the authority is based before it ends, because once the contract is signed the procurement can no longer be reviewed.

• New grounds raised more than three weeks after filing are generally not considered.
• A request to annul a signed contract must be filed within six months, or within 30 days of certain notices.
• Appeals to the kammarrätt (administrative court of appeal) require leave.

Formal errors cause many rejections, because only tenders that follow the documents exactly can be considered. A missing mandatory document can exclude an otherwise strong offer.