How to Register on TED (Tenders Electronic Daily): Step-by-Step Guide

If you sell products or services to governments anywhere in Europe, Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) is the single most important platform you need to know. TED is the official publication channel for public procurement notices across the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland, as established by EU Directive 2014/24/EU. Every contract that exceeds the EU procurement thresholds must be published here, making it the largest single source of government contract opportunities in Europe.

Yet many companies — even experienced B2G sellers — never go beyond a basic keyword search on TED. They miss the alert system, the advanced filters, and the structured data that can give them a significant competitive edge.

This guide walks you through everything: creating your account, navigating the platform, setting up effective searches, configuring alerts, and understanding the eForms transition that reshaped TED in 2023-2024.

Step 1: Create Your EU Login Account

TED uses the European Commission's central authentication system, EU Login (formerly ECAS). This single account gives you access to TED and dozens of other EU digital services.

How to create an EU Login account

1. Go to https://ted.europa.eu and click "Sign in" in the top-right corner
2. You will be redirected to the EU Login page — click "Create an account"
3. Enter your professional email address, first name, last name, and choose your preferred language
4. Complete the CAPTCHA and submit the form
5. Check your email for a verification link (check spam folders — EU emails sometimes get filtered)
6. Click the verification link and set your password — use a strong password with at least 10 characters
7. Optionally, set up two-factor authentication for added security

Tip: Use your company email address rather than a personal one. If you leave the company, your colleagues can request access transfer through the EU Login support team.

After account creation

Once your EU Login account is active, return to TED and sign in. You will now see additional options in the interface:

• Saved searches — Store complex search queries for one-click access
• Email alerts — Receive daily or weekly notifications when new matching notices appear
• Search history — Review your recent searches
• Bookmarked notices — Save specific notices for later review

Step 2: Understand the TED Interface

The TED platform was substantially redesigned in 2023-2024 as part of the eForms transition. The current interface has three primary areas you need to understand.

The search page

The main search page is your entry point. It offers:

• Quick search — A simple text box for keyword searches across all notice fields
• Advanced search — Structured filters for CPV codes, NUTS regions, notice type, publication date, deadline, estimated value, and procedure type
• Expert search — A query builder for complex boolean searches combining multiple criteria

Notice detail pages

When you open a specific notice, you see structured data organized into sections. Since the eForms transition, notice pages display data in a standardized format including buyer information, contract description, lots, award criteria, deadlines, and submission requirements.

The eSender section

For contracting authorities that publish notices, TED provides eSender functionality — the system through which notices are submitted. As a bidder, you do not need eSender access, but understanding it helps you understand why some notices appear faster than others. Notices submitted through certified eSenders (like national procurement platforms) typically appear within 48 hours.

Step 3: Master TED Search

Effective searching on TED is the difference between drowning in irrelevant notices and finding precisely the opportunities that match your business.

Search by CPV codes

CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes are the most reliable way to find relevant opportunities. Every notice published on TED is tagged with at least one CPV code describing what is being procured.

To search by CPV:

1. In the advanced search form, find the CPV code field
2. Start typing a keyword — the autocomplete will suggest matching CPV codes
3. Select the appropriate code at the level that matches your offerings
4. You can add multiple CPV codes to broaden your search

Strategy: Start with your primary CPV division (first two digits), review the results, then narrow to specific groups or classes. For example, if you provide IT services, start with division 72 (IT services) rather than jumping straight to a narrow class.

Search by geography

TED uses NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) codes for geographic filtering. You can filter by:

• Country level (e.g., all of Germany)
• Regional level (e.g., Bavaria, Ile-de-France)
• Local level (specific metropolitan areas)

This is particularly useful if you operate in specific markets. A company focused on French procurement can filter to FR- NUTS codes and see only relevant opportunities.

Search by procedure type

Understanding procedure types helps you filter for opportunities where you can actually compete:

• Open procedure — Any qualified company can bid. Best for companies entering new markets
• Restricted procedure — Two-stage process with pre-qualification. Requires more investment upfront
• Competitive dialogue — For complex projects where the solution is not predefined
• Negotiated procedure — Limited cases where direct negotiation is permitted

Combine filters for precision

The most effective TED searches combine multiple criteria. For example:

• CPV 72000000 (IT services) + NUTS DE (Germany) + Open procedure + Published in last 30 days
• CPV 45000000 (Construction) + NUTS FR (France) + Estimated value > 5,000,000 EUR
• Multiple CPV codes + Multiple countries + Deadline > today (active opportunities only)

Step 4: Set Up Email Alerts

Searching manually every day is unsustainable. TED's alert system lets you automate monitoring so new opportunities come to you.

Creating an alert

1. Run an advanced search with your desired criteria (CPV, geography, procedure type, etc.)
2. Once you see results, click "Save search and create alert"
3. Name your alert descriptively (e.g., "IT Services - Germany - Open Procedure")
4. Choose frequency: daily or weekly
5. Choose format: HTML email or RSS feed
6. Confirm and save

Alert best practices

• Create multiple targeted alerts rather than one broad alert. A single alert for "all IT services in the EU" will overwhelm you with hundreds of notices daily
• Set up alerts at different CPV levels — one at the division level (broad monitoring) and specific ones at the class level (direct matches)
• Review and refine monthly — Check which alerts generate actionable leads and which just create noise. Adjust CPV codes and geographic scope accordingly
• Use the weekly digest for secondary markets where you bid occasionally, and daily alerts for your primary markets

Alert limitations to know

TED alerts are basic email notifications. They lack features like:

• Deduplication (the same contract may trigger multiple alerts if it matches different saved searches)
• Prioritization (all matching notices get the same treatment)
• Team routing (alerts go to one email address)
• Historical analysis (no way to see trends over time)

For teams that need more sophisticated monitoring, purpose-built procurement intelligence platforms like Duke provide filtered, deduplicated, and enriched alert pipelines that go far beyond what TED offers natively.

Step 5: Navigate the eForms Transition

The biggest change to TED in its history happened between 2023 and 2025: the transition from the legacy TED XML schema to eForms, the new standardized notice format.

What changed

• Standardized fields — eForms defines a common vocabulary for all notice fields, reducing inconsistency between member states
• More structured data — Key information like award criteria weightings, lot structures, and evaluation methodology is now captured in structured fields rather than free text
• New business term IDs — Every data element has a unique identifier (BT-xxx), making it possible to search and compare across notices more precisely
• Improved lot handling — Multi-lot tenders are now better structured, with clear per-lot information
• New notice types — eForms introduced additional notice types and subtypes for better granularity

What this means for you

1. Better searchability — Structured data means filters work more reliably. Searching by estimated value, for instance, now works consistently across all member states
2. More complete information — Notices contain more detail upfront, reducing the need to download separate procurement documents for basic assessment
3. Transition period quirks — Some older notices (pre-October 2023) use the legacy format. When searching across date ranges that span the transition, be aware that some fields may not align perfectly

Staying current

TED continues to evolve. The European Commission publishes updates to the eForms SDK (the technical specification) regularly. As a bidder, you do not need to understand the technical details, but you should be aware that:

• New fields are added periodically as the SDK is updated
• National implementations may vary slightly in which optional fields they populate
• The search interface is updated to reflect new eForms capabilities

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Relying solely on keyword search. TED's keyword search scans free-text fields, which vary in quality and language. A German contracting authority might describe an IT project entirely in German, meaning your English keyword search misses it. Always combine keywords with CPV codes for reliable coverage.

Ignoring the lot structure. A single notice can contain dozens of lots, each representing a separate contract opportunity. Filtering only at the notice level means you miss lots that match your capabilities within larger multi-lot tenders.

Not checking the original language version. TED publishes notices in the official language of the contracting authority, with machine translations available. The original language version is authoritative — if the English translation seems ambiguous, always check the source.

Searching only on TED. TED publishes notices above EU thresholds, but enormous volumes of procurement happen below these thresholds and are published only on national platforms. For complete market coverage in specific countries like Germany or France, you need to monitor national and regional platforms as well.

Missing the deadline calculation. TED displays deadlines in the contracting authority's local timezone. If you are bidding from a different timezone, double-check the exact cutoff. Electronic submission platforms typically lock at midnight or a specific time in the local timezone — being one hour late means your bid is excluded with no recourse.

How Duke Helps

While TED is the essential starting point for EU procurement monitoring, building a complete tender intelligence workflow requires going beyond what TED offers. Duke addresses the gaps:

• Cross-platform aggregation — Duke monitors TED plus national platforms across Europe, giving you a single view of opportunities that would otherwise require checking dozens of separate sources
• Intelligent deduplication — The same opportunity often appears on TED and the national platform. Duke matches and merges these so you see each opportunity once, with the richest available data
• Team collaboration — Route opportunities to the right team members based on sector, geography, or value, with shared pipelines and notes
• Competition intelligence — See who won similar contracts in the past, helping you assess whether to bid and how to position your offer
• Structured alert pipelines — Go beyond TED's basic email alerts with filtered, prioritized, and enriched notifications

Conclusion

Registering on TED and learning to use it effectively is the foundation of any European procurement strategy. The platform provides free access to the largest database of public contract opportunities in the world, and the eForms transition has made the data more structured and searchable than ever.

The key steps are straightforward: create your EU Login account, learn to combine CPV codes with geographic and procedural filters, set up targeted alerts, and understand the eForms data structure. Once you have this foundation, you can build a systematic approach to finding and evaluating opportunities.

Remember that TED is one piece of the puzzle. For companies serious about winning government contracts, combining TED monitoring with national platform coverage and analytical tools creates the comprehensive intelligence needed to compete effectively in European public procurement.