Bidding with partners: consortia and subcontractors

Eligibility · This guide was generated with the help of an AI system. Its legal references were checked against the official EU texts listed under Sources on 10 October 2026. Next review due by 10 October 2027, or sooner if the law changes. EU rules only. Not legal advice.

Short answer. The Directive gives you three different ways to work with other companies, and they carry different obligations. In a group (a consortium or joint venture) you bid together, and the buyer can’t demand a particular legal form before the award (Article 19(2)). If you rely on another entity’s capacities to meet the financial or technical selection criteria, you must prove you’ll have its resources, and the buyer checks that entity for exclusion grounds and selection criteria as well (Article 63). A subcontractor performs part of the contract. The buyer may ask you to name it and its share (Article 71), but a fixed national cap on subcontracting is incompatible with the Directive (C‑63/18). One partner can fill two roles at once, so be clear which rules apply to each.

EU law · Three roles, three sets of rules

Where you rely on another entity’s qualifications or professional experience, Article 63(1) requires that entity to perform the works or services for which they’re needed, so it takes part in performing the contract. A subcontractor you don’t rely on for selection is simply a subcontractor.

Groups of economic operators

• Groups, “including temporary associations”, may take part. Buyers can’t require a specific legal form to submit a tender (Article 19(2)). They may require one after the award, where it is necessary for satisfactory performance (Article 19(3)).
• Where necessary, the documents can say how a group is to meet the financial and technical requirements, if that is objectively justified and proportionate. Conditions for performance by a group that differ from those for individual bidders must also be justified and proportionate (Article 19(2)).
• A group can rely on the capacities of its members or of other entities, under the same conditions as a single bidder (Article 63(1)).
• A national rule requiring the lead member to meet most of the requirements and perform most of the services is precluded (Caruter, C‑642/20).

Relying on other entities

• You may rely on other entities “regardless of the legal nature of the links” with them, for financial standing (Article 58(3)) and technical and professional ability (Article 58(4)). You must prove you’ll have their resources, for example with a commitment from them (Article 63(1)).
• Your own wholly owned subsidiary counts as an “other entity” for this purpose (C‑812/24).
• The buyer checks the entity for exclusion grounds and selection criteria. It must require you to replace an entity that fails a selection criterion or has a compulsory exclusion ground, and it may require you to replace one with a non-compulsory ground (Article 63(1)).
• Automatic exclusion of the bidder because a relied-on entity made an untruthful declaration about criminal convictions, with no chance to replace it, is precluded (Rad Service, C‑210/20).
• For certain critical tasks in works, services and siting or installation work, the documents may require you, or a member of your group, to perform them directly (Article 63(2)).

Subcontracting

• The documents may ask you to state the share you intend to subcontract and your proposed subcontractors (Article 71(2)).
• For works, and services at a facility under the buyer’s direct oversight, the buyer must ask the winner, at the latest when performance starts, for the names, contact details and legal representatives of the subcontractors involved, and to report changes (Article 71(5)).
• Member States may provide for direct payment to subcontractors on request (Article 71(3)).
• A national cap of 30% on subcontracting is precluded under Directive 2014/24 (Vitali, C‑63/18). Under the earlier Directive, the Court also precluded a 30% cap and a rule limiting price reductions for subcontracted work to 20% (Tedeschi, C‑402/18).
• Where a subcontractor named in your tender is in a situation covered by Article 57(4)(a) (a breach of environmental, social or labour obligations), national law may let or make the buyer exclude you. But the exclusion can’t be automatic: you must have the chance to show measures under Article 57(6) (Tim, C‑395/18).
• In one case, a bidder said it would meet obligations under special national laws by relying on another entity, without having a subcontract yet. The Court held it couldn’t be excluded for not naming a subcontractor for those obligations, which weren’t in the documents (SC NV Construct, C‑403/21, ruling point 3). The ruling is tied to those facts.

When a group’s contract goes wrong

If a contract awarded to a group is terminated early for serious deficiencies, national rules can’t automatically blacklist every member. A member can show, with any evidence, including evidence about the lead partner, that it didn’t cause the deficiencies and couldn’t reasonably have done more (HSC Baltic, C‑682/21). Under the earlier Directive, the Court also held that national law can’t automatically bar the original members of a temporary group from withdrawing when the buyer asks to extend the validity of tenders, provided the remaining members meet the requirements and no other bidder is disadvantaged (C‑403/23).

National law · What varies

Direct payment, joint liability between main contractor and subcontractors, how groups meet requirements, and whether subcontractors are checked for exclusion grounds are all left partly to Member States and the documents (Articles 19(2), 71(3), (6) and (7)).

Our analysis · Choosing the structure

This table is our reading of the provisions and judgments above. The documents and national law can change the answer for a given tender.

Practice · Before you submit

1. Decide the role of each partner and write it down: member, relied-on entity, subcontractor, or more than one.
2. Collect an ESPD for every entity whose capacities you rely on, and for every group member (see the ESPD). If one is missing, it may be fixable after the deadline, but don’t count on it (see when the buyer asks you to clarify your tender).
3. Get commitments in writing from relied-on entities, naming the resources they’ll provide.
4. Check your partners for exclusion grounds before you name them. A partner with a problem may have to be replaced (Article 63(1)), and you’ll need to show what was done about it (see exclusion grounds).
5. Read the subcontracting clauses: shares to declare, critical tasks, names after award, direct payment.
6. Agree liability inside a group, and where the documents require joint liability with a relied-on entity.

What this page doesn’t cover

Selection criteria themselves (see selection criteria). National rules on joint ventures and direct payment. Utilities and defence contracts. Subcontracting during performance, after the award, in detail. When a contractor can be replaced after signature, including by succession after restructuring, is in changing a public contract after signature.