Entering Iceland through distributors: a small EEA market, Landspítali, Fjársýslan and a customs border

Iceland suits a manufacturer that is ready for a small market: a handful of large public buyers, local importers that carry many brands at once, a customs border with the EU and a first e-mail that is lawful when it goes to a company's general address.

Putting it simply: Icelandic hospitals, state bodies, municipalities and utilities buy mostly from Icelandic importers and distributors that hold stock, clear customs, invoice in krónur and service what they sell. Iceland is in the EEA but not in the EU, so it applies the EU procurement rules through the EEA Agreement and its own Public Procurement Act No. 120/2016, while goods from the EU still cross a customs border. Only the larger contracts reach TED: on TED, Icelandic buyers publish roughly 50 to 70 award notices for supplies a year, and medical supplies for Landspítali, the national university hospital, are the biggest single block. Find the importers that already win your category, write to the company's general address, and offer quantities and support that fit a small market.

How the market buys

Importers that carry the range

In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (November 2026), 93% of the 555 awards in the 189 notices from buyers in Iceland went to companies registered in the country, and 77% of the 160 winning companies were Icelandic. Those local winners include independent distributors as well as the local companies of international manufacturers (see our methodology). In the twelve months to early November 2026 the local share was 87% of 206 awards. A foreign manufacturer enters by being taken on by one of these importers.

The foreign companies that do win are mostly Nordic. Danish companies took 11 awards, Norwegian companies 6 and Swedish companies 4; companies from the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom took a few each. Foreign winners appear most in laboratory, optical and precision equipment, where local companies took 6 of 16 awards; in electrical equipment and lighting, every one of the 58 awards went to an Icelandic company. A few of the notices in our data come from joint Nordic procurements led by a Danish or Norwegian public body. When you discuss territory with a Nordic distributor, ask whether it already covers Iceland.

A few large buyers

Public demand on TED is concentrated. Medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and personal care products account for 57 of the 189 notices and 295 of the 555 awards, and Landspítali is the largest buyer in that category in our data. The other large buyer is central government purchasing, which across its two agencies published more of the notices than Landspítali: until August 2024 it ran through Ríkiskaup, the state procurement agency, since 1 August 2024 its tasks and staff have been part of Fjársýsla ríkisins (Fjársýslan), and Ríkiskaup has been formally abolished. Transport equipment (25 notices), electrical equipment and lighting (18), laboratory equipment (14), furniture and cleaning products (12) and construction materials (12) follow. Reykjavík, other municipalities, the airport operator Isavia and the energy and grid companies also buy, but less often above the EU thresholds.

Fairs: few in Iceland

As of 8 November 2026, our fair database lists no trade fair held in Iceland for the industries it covers. Expect to meet Icelandic distributors at the international fairs of your industry elsewhere in Europe, listed on our events pages, or by writing to them directly.

The proof Icelandic buyers expect

Documents and language

Icelandic is the national language and the official language of Iceland, and it is the language of public authorities (Act No. 61/2011 on the status of the Icelandic language, articles 1 and 8). Public bodies must also seek to ensure that people who do not understand Icelandic can have their necessary business transacted (article 9). In practice, Icelandic buyers and distributors work in English as well: on Útboðsvefur.is several notices carry English titles or full English descriptions, while many others are in Icelandic only. Expect a distributor to accept English technical sheets and declarations to start, and to ask for Icelandic versions of user-facing information where buyers or users need them. Check which product rules in your category require Icelandic text with your adviser.

Conformity evidence

The EEA Agreement extends the internal market's free movement of goods to Iceland, so CE marking under the EU legislation for your product is the baseline in Iceland too. Expect to be asked for the declaration of conformity and the test reports behind it, and documentation the distributor can show public buyers.

Customs, duties and VAT

Iceland is in the EEA but outside the EU customs union: the EFTA Secretariat lists the Customs Union and the Common Trade Policy among the EU policies the EEA Agreement does not cover. Goods from the EU are therefore cleared through customs on arrival, and import charges (duties, excise duties where they apply, and VAT) are payable on import under the Icelandic customs tariff, according to Skatturinn, the Icelandic tax and customs authority. Products originating in the EEA, in EFTA or in a country with an Icelandic free trade agreement can enter duty-free when the importer presents proof of origin: an EUR.1 movement certificate, or an origin declaration made out by the exporter on the invoice (any exporter up to a value limit; above it, an approved exporter, whose authorisation number must appear on the invoice).

The standard VAT rate is 24% and the reduced rate 11%. A foreign company that only supplies goods from abroad is not liable for Icelandic VAT, so in the usual set-up your distributor is the importer and pays the import VAT. Agree in advance who clears customs, who bears any duties and taxes, and the Incoterm, and check the rules for your products with your customs or tax adviser.

A company record that can be checked

Every Icelandic company has a kennitala, the national identification number. Skatturinn runs a single search across the company register (fyrirtækjaskrá), the register of annual accounts (ársreikningaskrá) and the VAT register, by name, address, kennitala or VAT number. Check a prospective distributor there, and have your own register extract and VAT number ready for its checks on you.

Invoicing

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs decided that from 1 January 2020 all invoices for the state's purchases of goods and services must be electronic, in XML format and sent through a message broker (skeytamiðlari); PDF invoices sent by e-mail are not accepted. State bodies set out further requirements: one, Framkvæmdasýslan Ríkiseignir (FSRE), asks for an electronically certified invoice showing the issuer's name, kennitala and VAT number, the invoice number and its work order number. Your distributor will usually be the one invoicing the hospital or agency, in krónur. As of 8 November 2026 we could not confirm on an official page which technical standard the state's e-invoicing currently names; if you will invoice a public body yourself, check the format with the buyer and your adviser.

Payment terms

Act No. 38/2001 on interest and price indexation governs default interest (dráttarvextir) on late payment. The Central Bank of Iceland publishes the rate every month: it is the Central Bank's base rate for default interest plus a surcharge (vanefndaálag) of seven percentage points, unless the parties agree otherwise under article 6(2) (Central Bank notices No. 08/2024 and No. 2/2026, citing articles 6 and 10 of the Act; from 1 March 2026 the base was 8.00% and default interest 15.00%). Agree the payment term with your distributor in the contract, and check how default interest applies to your invoices with your adviser.

Where public demand is visible

Thresholds and the national portal

Icelandic thresholds are set in krónur, excluding VAT, by regulation under article 23 of Act No. 120/2016. Regulation No. 495/2026, which amends Regulation No. 360/2022 and implements Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152, sets the tendering duty for supply contracts at:

• ISK 20,657,000 for state bodies;
• ISK 31,871,000 for municipalities and bodies under them.

For goods and services, the national duty to tender uses the same amounts as the EEA duty; works have a separate national threshold of ISK 75,800,000. These figures correspond to the EU thresholds for supplies of €140,000 for central government authorities and €216,000 for other contracting authorities, which apply from 1 January 2026 (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152).

All public procurement of goods, services and works above these amounts must be advertised on Útboðsvefur.is, the shared publication point for public tenders (Regulation No. 360/2022, article 1, with article 55 of the Act). The site lists open tenders by buyer and type, including goods (vörukaup), as well as price enquiries (verðfyrirspurn), market consultations and dynamic purchasing systems. Below the thresholds there is no duty to run a public tender, so most smaller purchases never appear on TED; some appear on Útboðsvefur.is as price enquiries, and many are made without a published notice.

TED

Above the EEA thresholds, article 84 of the Act requires the buyer to announce the award of a contract or framework agreement within 30 days of conclusion and to send the notice to the Publications Office of the EU, which is why Icelandic awards appear on TED. Icelandic notices in the eForms format, which Cresques reads, start in January 2024, so our Icelandic data run from the start of 2024: 69 supply award notices in 2024, 50 in 2025 and 70 in 2026 up to early November.

Of the 487 award rows where the notice reports the number of tenders received, 7.6% came from lots that received exactly one tender.

Central framework agreements

Fjársýslan handles tenders and framework agreements for state bodies. Miðlægir samningar lists the state's central framework agreements by category, from IT and vehicles to food, cleaning products and building materials, each with its own page and end date. If your category is covered, find out which importers hold the agreement and when it ends; a new tender is the moment a distributor needs a strong supplier.

Lawful first contact

Article 94 of the Electronic Communications Act No. 70/2022 (lög um fjarskipti) sets the rules for unsolicited communications. Its first paragraph allows e-mail for direct marketing only with the end-user's prior informed consent, with an exception for a business's own customers. Its fourth paragraph then allows the general e-mail addresses of companies and institutions, where they exist, to be used for direct marketing of goods and services. Marketing e-mail must clearly show the name and address of the sender, and Fjarskiptastofa, the Electronic Communications Office, enforces article 94 (article 102). Fjarskiptastofa's own guidance for users says the same in plain terms: marketing may be sent to general addresses of companies and institutions, such as info@, but generally not to employees' personal work addresses without proper authorisation.

The line is clear in the text. A first e-mail to a company's general address, such as info@ or sala@, is lawful without prior consent. A named employee's own address does not benefit from the exception, so treat it as needing prior consent; when you hold a named person's details, data protection law applies to them as well.

In practice: find the general address on the distributor's website; write a short message in English or Icelandic that says who you are, where you are based and why your range suits what the company already sells; include your full company name and postal address in every message; and stop at once if asked. Follow up by telephone, or write to named contacts, only after the distributor has replied. This is a summary, not legal advice; check your outreach plan with your adviser. The Iceland market page sets out the rule and the steps.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Find the importers through TED award notices, Útboðsvefur.is and the central framework agreements on Miðlægir samningar.
• Check each candidate in Skatturinn's company search by kennitala, and have your own register extract and VAT number ready.
• Settle the customs route before the first offer: proof of origin on the invoice, who clears customs, who pays any duties and the 24% import VAT, and realistic lead times.
• Expect small, mixed orders and long support: spare parts, documentation and training for years.
• Prepare English technical sheets and declarations, with Icelandic user information where buyers or users need it.
• Write the first e-mail to the company's general address, with your full name and postal address, and keep named contacts for after a reply.

Where Cresques fits

Create a market for Iceland, 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 since the start of 2024, and the buyers they won from, with personal details removed. Opening a company profile shows every award with its value and buyer and an AI-researched role, so you can tell an independent importer from a manufacturer's own Icelandic company. The first message is drafted in Icelandic with an English version, for a company's general e-mail address and with an opt-out; you send it yourself from your own mailbox. Paid plans add e-mail alerts on new awards in the markets you follow. Cresques does not show Icelandic purchases below the EEA thresholds or price enquiries on Útboðsvefur.is, and for Iceland it has no register list of further companies and no filed financials; search those sources yourself.