Federal Act on Public Procurement (PPA) (PPA)
English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.
Art. 35 Content of the invitation to tender
The publication of an invitation to tender contains at least the following information: a. name and address of the contracting authority; b. type of contract and procedure and the relevant CPV classification, as well as the relevant CPC classification in the case of services; c. description of the goods, work or services, including the type and quantity, or, if the quantity is unknown, an estimate thereof, and any options; d. place and time of performance; e. if applicable, a division into lots, restriction on the number of lots and admission of partial tenders; f. if applicable, a restriction on or exclusion of bidding consortia and subcontractors; g. if applicable, a restriction on or exclusion of variants; h. in the case of contracts for goods, work or services required on a recurring basis, an indication of the date of the subsequent invitation to tender if possible and, if appropriate, an indication that the timeframe for submitting tenders will be shortened; i. where appropriate,
let. b — CPV = Common procurement vocabulary of the European Union let. b — CPC = Central product classification of the United Nations
Art. 36 Contents of the tender documentation
Where this information is not already contained in the invitation to tender, the tender documentation provides the following information: a. name and address of the contracting authority; b. the subject of the procurement, including technical specifications and certificates of conformity, plans, drawings and necessary instructions, as well as information on the quantity needed; c. formal requirements and participation conditions for the tenderers, including a list of data and documents that the tenderers must submit in connection with the participation conditions, as well as any weighting of the eligibility criteria; d. the award criteria and their weighting; e. if the contracting authority processes the procurement electronically: any authentication and encryption requirements for the electronic submission of information; f. if the contracting authority envisages an electronic auction: the rules for conducting the auction, including the indication of those tender components which may
Art. 37 Opening of tenders
1 In the open and selective procedure, all tenders submitted on time are opened by at least two representatives of the contracting authority. 2 Minutes of the tender opening are prepared. These must contain at least the names of the people present, the names of the tenderers, the date of their tender submission, any tender variants and the total price of each tender. 3 If the supply and price tenders must be submitted in two separate envelopes, the envelopes must be opened in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2, but only the total prices must be recorded in the minutes regarding the opening of the second envelope. 4 At the latest after the contract has been awarded, all tenderers are granted access to the minutes upon request.
Art. 38 Verification of tenders
1 The contracting authority verifies the tenders received for compliance with the formal requirements. It corrects any obvious calculation errors. 2 The contracting authority may require tenderers to explain their tenders. It keeps a written record of the request and the answers. 3 If a tender is received with a total price that appears unusually low in comparison with the other tenders, the contracting authority must obtain appropriate information from the tenderer as to whether the participation conditions have been complied with and whether the other requirements of the invitation to tender have been understood. 4 If supply and price tenders must be submitted in two separate envelopes, the awarding office first prepares a ranking according to the quality of the tenders. In a second step, it evaluates the total prices.
Art. 39 Adjustment of tenders
1 The contracting authority may work with the tenderers to adjust the tenders with regard to the goods, work or services and the arrangements for their provision in order to determine the most advantageous tender. 2 An adjustment takes place only if: a. this is the only way to clarify the contract or the tenders or to make the tenders objectively comparable in accordance with the award criteria; or b. supply changes are objectively and materially necessary, whereby what is to be supplied, the criteria and the specifications may not be adapted in such a way that the characteristic supply or the potential group of tenderers changes as a result. 3 A call for price adjustments is permitted only in connection with the circumstances described in paragraph 2. 4 The contracting authority logs the results of the adjustment.
Art. 40 Evaluation of tenders
1 Provided that the eligibility criteria and technical specifications are met, the tenders are examined and evaluated objectively, uniformly and comprehensibly in accordance with the award criteria. The contracting authority documents the evaluation. 2 If the comprehensive examination and evaluation of tenders requires considerable time and effort, and provided that the contracting authority announced this in the invitation to tender, it may subject all tenders to an initial examination and rank them based on the documents submitted. Where possible, it selects the three best-ranked tenders on that basis and subjects them to a comprehensive examination and evaluation.
Art. 41 Award
The contract is awarded to the most advantageous tender.
Art. 42 Conclusion of the contract
1 In the case of contracts outside the scope of international treaties, a contract may be concluded with the selected tenderer after the award has been made. 2 In the case of contracts within the scope of international treaties, a contract may be concluded with the selected tenderer after expiry of the deadline for appealing against the award, unless the Federal Administrative Court has granted suspensive effect to an appeal against the award. 3 If, in the case of contracts within the scope of international treaties, an appeal procedure against the award is pending without suspensive effect having been requested or granted, the contracting authority shall notify the court immediately of the conclusion of the contract.
Art. 43 Abandonment
1 The contracting authority may abandon the award procedure, particularly if: a. it decides not to award the public contract for valid reasons; b. no tender meets the technical specifications or the other requirements; c. more advantageous tenders are to be expected due to changes in the framework conditions; d. the tenders submitted do not allow for economical procurement, or significantly exceed the cost framework; e. there are sufficient indications of an unlawful agreement affecting competition between the tenderers; f. a significant change in the goods, work or services requested becomes necessary. 2 Tenderers are not entitled to compensation in the event of a justified abandonment of the procedure.
Art. 44 Exclusion from the procedure and revocation of the award
1 The contracting authority may exclude a tenderer from an award procedure, delete it from a list or revoke a contract it has already been awarded if it is found that the tenderer concerned, one of its governing bodies, a third party called upon or one of such a party's governing bodies: a. does not fulfil or no longer fulfils the conditions for participation in the procedure, or its behaviour jeopardises the legally compliant conduct of the award procedure; b. submitted a tender or request to participate that contains substantial formal errors or deviates substantially from the binding requirements of an invitation to tender; c. has been found guilty by a legally enforceable judgment of a misdemeanour to the detriment of the contracting authority or of a felony. d. is subject to attachment or bankruptcy proceedings; e. has violated anti-corruption provisions; f. refuses to allow inspections that have been ordered; fbis. has not resolved a vulnerability in the hard- or software it prod
Para. 1 let. fbis — Inserted by No II 1 of the FA of 29 Sept. 2023 (Introduction of a Reporting Obligation for Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure), in force since 1 April 2025 (AS 2024 257; 2025 168, 173; BBl 2023 84). Para. 1 let. fbis — SR 128 Para. 2 let. g — SR 822.41 Para. 2 let. h — SR 241
Art. 45 Sanctions
1 If a tenderer or subcontractor which, either itself or through its governing bodies, fulfils to a serious extent one or more of the criteria referred to in Article 44 paragraph 1 letters c and e and paragraph 2 letters b, f and g, the contracting authority or the competent authority by virtue of the law order may exclude it from future public contracts for a period of up to 5 years. A warning may be issued in minor cases. In the case of corruption (Art. 44 para. 1 lit. e), the tenderer is excluded from contracts awarded by all federal contracting authorities; in the other cases, the tenderer is excluded from contracts awarded by the contracting authority concerned only. 2 The possible sanctions apply irrespective of whether any further legal action is taken against the tenderer or subcontractor concerned or its governing bodies. The contracting authority shall notify the Competition Commission of any suspicion of unlawful agreements affecting competition (Art. 44 para. 2 lit. b). 3 T