Entering Bulgaria through distributors: CAIS EOP tenders, Bulgarian-language bids and a first e-mail only after the KZP check

Bulgaria suits a manufacturer that wants a compact EU market with one national procurement platform, a public company register buyers rely on and, since 1 January 2026, the euro.

Putting it simply: Bulgarian public buyers run their procedures on CAIS EOP (ЦАИС ЕОП), the national e-procurement platform at app.eop.bg, and the larger awards also appear on TED. Offers are written in Bulgarian, so a foreign manufacturer usually sells through a local distributor that bids, invoices and delivers. Companies are identified by their EIK, the code the Registry Agency gives every trader in the Commercial Register, and a public buyer may not ask a bidder to prove what that register already shows. A first commercial e-mail to a company is possible only after its address has been checked against the KZP opt-out register; a letter, a fair or an introduction is the safer opening.

How the market buys

Local distributors carry the tender

Bulgarian buyers expect a supplier who can bid in Bulgarian, invoice locally, deliver nationwide and provide service. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 99% of the winners in the 6,053 notices from buyers in Bulgaria were companies registered in the country (methodology). Those winners include independent distributors as well as manufacturers' own Bulgarian subsidiaries. A foreign manufacturer usually enters by being listed with one of them.

Framework agreements

The Public Procurement Act (Закон за обществените поръчки, ZOP) defines a framework agreement as one between one or more buyers and one or more suppliers that sets the terms of the orders to be placed over a period, including prices and, where possible, quantities (article 81(2)). A public buyer's framework may not run longer than four years, save in exceptional cases the buyer justifies in the notice (article 81(3) and (4)), and once it is signed no new suppliers may join (article 81(6)). Where the framework does not fix every term and has several suppliers, each order goes through an internal competition among them (article 82(3)).

A distributor outside the framework waits for the next one, so the framework tenders of hospitals, municipalities and agencies are the doors that matter. Read a framework's headline value as a ceiling, not a sale (why a framework value is a ceiling, not a price).

Central purchasing

Under article 96 of the ZOP, central purchasing bodies for the executive administrations and for particular sectors are set up by the Council of Ministers, and municipal councils can create their own or buy through one. The Public Procurement Agency (АОП) lists among the national acts a 2015 decree on the central purchasing body for the executive authorities and a 2015 decree creating a central purchasing body for the healthcare sector. As of November 2026 we could not confirm from an official source which product categories each body currently buys, so take the buyer named on each award notice as your guide.

The proof Bulgarian buyers expect

A company that can be checked

Bulgarian companies are entered in the Commercial Register and Register of Non-Profit Legal Entities, a common electronic database kept by the Registry Agency (Агенция по вписванията), and published without personal data except where a law requires it (article 2 of the Commercial Register Act). The register is public, and everyone has free access to its database (article 11(1)). Each trader receives a unified identification code, the EIK (ЕИК), at first entry, and keeps it until deletion (article 23(1) and (4)). Bodies that are not traders, such as many public institutions, and foreign legal entities active in Bulgaria are entered instead in the BULSTAT register (article 3 of the BULSTAT Register Act).

One rule makes the EIK especially useful in tenders. Where a company gives its EIK, public authorities, and also the procurement buyers under article 5 of the ZOP, may not ask it to prove circumstances already entered in the register or to present acts already published there (article 23(6)). Expect your distributor to identify itself, and you, by these numbers, and give your own company and VAT numbers in the same plain form. The register also publishes companies' annual financial statements, which is a quick way to see the size of a prospective partner.

Documents in Bulgarian

Offers and requests to participate are prepared in Bulgarian; only where the contract is performed abroad may the buyer allow another official language (article 101(6) of the ZOP). Give the distributor technical sheets, instructions, declarations of conformity and a price list it can upload as they are, with CE marking and test reports where the product's EU rules require them, references from other public buyers and a service and spare-parts plan. We did not review sector-specific labelling rules for this guide; check them for your category.

Prices in euro

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026 (Council Decision (EU) 2025/1407), at a fixed conversion rate of 1.95583 lev per euro (Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1409). Quote in euro, and expect older documents, price lists and many legal texts to show leva: under the Euro Introduction Act, amounts stated in leva in existing legal instruments count as euro amounts at that rate, rounded to the cent (articles 11(2), 12 and 13).

Where public demand is visible

Under article 39a of the ZOP, procedures, including framework agreements and dynamic purchasing systems, run on a centralised electronic platform. That platform is CAIS EOP, used for notices, documents, questions and offers. On the day we checked it (3 November 2026) it listed 1,484 procedures open for participation. Each buyer keeps a buyer profile on the platform, with a separate electronic file for every procurement (article 36a). Procurements opened before CAIS EOP became mandatory are in the AOP's older register at aop.bg.

An August 2026 amendment helps with planning: by 30 November each year every buyer must publish, in its buyer profile on CAIS EOP, an indicative schedule of the procurements and framework agreements it plans for the next calendar year, and must keep it updated (article 230a). The first round, for 2027, is due by 30 November 2026.

The publication layers follow the value of the purchase. The consolidated text published by the AOP, as amended to 7 August 2026, still expresses the national thresholds in leva; under the Euro Introduction Act they are read in euro at the fixed rate:

• Above the EU thresholds. From 1 January 2026, notices for supplies and services must go to the Official Journal of the EU, and so to TED, from EUR 140,000 for central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public buyers (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152). In the ZOP, the full procedures apply to supplies and services bought by public buyers from 273,812 leva (article 20(1)(1)(b)), which is EUR 139,997.85 at the fixed rate.
• Below the EU thresholds. For supplies and services from 100,000 leva (EUR 51,129.19) up to that threshold, buyers use the national procedures (article 20(2)).
• Collection of offers. From 50,000 to 100,000 leva (EUR 25,564.59 to 51,129.19), buyers collect offers by a public notice or by invitation (article 20(3)).
• Direct awards. Below 50,000 leva (EUR 25,564.59) a buyer may award supplies and services directly (article 20(4)).

The euro figures are our conversions under that rule; as of November 2026 we found no AOP publication restating the national thresholds in euro, so check the current amounts with the AOP before relying on them.

Invoicing and payment terms

E-invoicing

When paying under public contracts, Bulgarian buyers must accept and process electronic invoices that meet the content rules of the VAT Act and the European e-invoicing standard (article 115a of the ZOP), and CAIS EOP can be used to submit and receive them (article 39a(5)). Between companies there is no general obligation yet: in September 2026 the Ministry of Finance put out for public consultation a draft amendment to the VAT Act that would make structured e-invoices compulsory for domestic supplies between VAT-registered businesses, and as of November 2026 it is a draft, not law. Your distributor invoices the hospital; you invoice the distributor. Check your own VAT and invoicing position with a Bulgarian tax adviser.

Payment terms

Under article 303a of the Commerce Act, parties to a commercial transaction may agree a payment term of no more than 60 days, and longer only exceptionally, where the nature of the goods or another important reason requires it and it is not a clear abuse of the creditor. Where the debtor is a public buyer, the cap is 30 days, extendable to no more than 60 days on the same conditions. If no term is agreed, payment is due within 14 days of receiving the invoice. Unless agreed otherwise, a creditor paid late is entitled, without a reminder, to statutory interest and to compensation for recovery costs of at least EUR 40 (the amount set in euro by the Euro Introduction Act), and that liability cannot be limited when the debtor is a public buyer (article 309a). Expect your distributor to raise early how long public buyers actually take to pay. Check the terms of your contract with a Bulgarian lawyer.

Lawful first contact

Bulgaria handles business e-mail through a public opt-out register for companies, not a blanket consent rule. Article 6 of the Electronic Commerce Act (Закон за електронната търговия) requires an unsolicited commercial e-mail sent without prior consent to be recognisable as unsolicited as soon as it arrives. The Commission for Consumer Protection (KZP) keeps an electronic register of the addresses of legal persons that do not wish to receive such messages, and sending to an address in that register is prohibited. Sending unsolicited commercial messages to consumers without prior consent is prohibited too. KZP's public form checks up to 100,000 addresses per request.

We treat Bulgaria as conditional: a first e-mail to a company is lawful only once you have checked its address against the register, and the sources we checked do not settle whether a named employee's address counts as the company's or as personal. Check every address first, write only to a generic address the company publishes (office@, sales@), make the message recognisable as commercial from the first line, identify your company fully, offer a free way to opt out and honour it at once. Do not write to a named person's mailbox without consent. Recheck before later mailings. A letter to the manager with a one-page product sheet in Bulgarian, a stand or visit at the sector's trade fair, or an introduction through a chamber or an existing partner remains the safest first step. The Bulgaria market page sets out the rule in full. This is general information; check your plans with a lawyer.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Find the distributors through the public trail: TED for the larger awards, CAIS EOP for national procedures and buyer profiles.
• Read the indicative schedules buyers publish by 30 November to see which tenders and frameworks are coming next year.
• Look for framework agreements in your category and when they end; treat their values as ceilings.
• Prepare bid documents in Bulgarian, with conformity evidence and references.
• Check a partner by its EIK in the Commercial Register, including its published accounts.
• Quote in euro and keep payment terms within 60 days, 30 where a public buyer pays.
• Check every address against the KZP register before any e-mail, and prefer a letter, a fair or an introduction.

Where Cresques fits

Create a market for Bulgaria, choose your CPV categories (or let the materials reader suggest them from a brochure or website), and Cresques shows the companies named in TED award notices for those categories, with personal details removed and framework ceilings kept apart from prices. A company profile adds the award history and an AI-researched role, to tell an independent distributor from a manufacturer's subsidiary. Cresques can draft a first message in Bulgarian, with an English version, for the channel this guide describes; you check the address against the KZP register and send it yourself. Follow the market to get e-mail alerts on new awards. Below-threshold procedures on CAIS EOP, Bulgarian register lists and company financials are not in Cresques; search CAIS EOP and the Commercial Register for them.