Entering Latvia through distributors: local dealers, IUB notices, EIS catalogues and e-mail with an opt-out

Latvia suits a manufacturer that wants a compact Baltic market with one national publication point for every procurement notice, a public contract register, and a first contact that may lawfully be made by e-mail to a company's general address, as long as the message carries a working opt-out.

Putting it simply: Latvian hospitals, municipalities, state agencies and state-owned companies buy mostly from Latvian distributors and wholesalers that bid in Latvian, invoice in the country and deliver and service what they sell. Every notice goes through the publication system of the Procurement Monitoring Bureau (IUB), larger awards also appear on TED, and the IUB keeps a contract register, so the companies that already sell your category can be found by name. Buyers and distributors expect Latvian product information, a checkable company record and, increasingly, structured e-invoices. The Information Society Services Law asks for prior consent only when you e-mail natural persons, so a short, honest e-mail to a distributor's general address is a lawful way to open the conversation.

How the market buys

Local distributors, with Baltic neighbours as the competition

In medical, laboratory, furniture and technical categories the usual route is a Latvian distributor that imports, holds stock, delivers, services and prepares bids. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (November 2026), 97.3% of the awards in the 7,052 notices from buyers in Latvia since November 2023 went to companies registered in the country (95.2% in the last twelve months, across 2,732 notices). Those local winners include distributors and wholesalers as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries (see our methodology). A foreign manufacturer usually enters by being listed with one of them.

The foreign companies that do win in Latvia come mainly from next door. About half of the awards that went to companies registered outside Latvia went to Lithuanian firms, and Lithuanian, Estonian and Finnish firms together account for more than three quarters of them; German, Polish and Dutch firms follow far behind. Some Baltic distributors cover two or three of the Baltic states from one base, so when you discuss territory, ask whether a partner sells in Estonia and Lithuania as well, and how it wins against the Lithuanian and Estonian suppliers it meets in tenders.

Where public demand sits

By number of award notices, the largest supply categories from Latvian buyers since November 2023 are medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and personal care (CPV division 33, 1,682 notices), fuel and energy (division 09, 1,011), food (division 15, 702), transport equipment (division 34, 651), laboratory, optical and precision equipment (division 38, 470) and furniture, furnishings and cleaning products (division 39, 430). The number of notices has been steady: 2,056 in 2024, 2,336 in 2025 and 2,314 in 2026 up to early November.

Fairs in Riga

The Riga fair organiser BT 1 lists, among others, Tech Industry for machinery, automation and electrical engineering (26 to 28 November 2026), Māja for building products and building services (1 to 4 April 2027), Riga Food for food, packaging and catering equipment (9 to 11 September 2027), Medbaltica for medical equipment and supplies (23 to 24 September 2027) and Riga Furniture and Interior (15 to 17 October 2027). The organiser notes that its calendar may change, so confirm dates before you book. The trade fairs we track by industry are listed at cresques.com/events.

The proof Latvian buyers expect

Documents in Latvian

The Official Language Law (Valsts valodas likums) sets the language rules a distributor deals with every day:

• Every imported product whose labelling, instructions for use, warranty documents or technical passport are in a foreign language must come with a translation of that information into Latvian (section 21(3)).
• State and municipal bodies and state or municipal companies accept and examine documents from persons only in Latvian, unless the law provides otherwise (section 10(2)); a document in a foreign language is accepted with a translation certified in the way the Cabinet of Ministers sets, or by a notary (section 10(3)). Documents received from abroad may be accepted and examined without a translation (section 10(4)).

In practice, expect a distributor to ask for Latvian instructions, labels, data sheets and declarations before it lists your range, with a complete English technical file behind them. Tender documents set their own language requirements, so read each one.

Conformity evidence

CE marking under the EU legislation for your product is the baseline; expect to be asked for the declaration of conformity, test reports and safety information, in electronic form so that they can be attached to a bid.

A company record that can be checked

Latvian buyers check counterparties in the Register of Enterprises (Uzņēmumu reģistrs), which offers a public search of company data. Procurement checks also run through the e-certificates module of the Electronic Procurement System (EIS): a supplier, a buyer or a public partner can request an electronic certificate that gathers information from state registers to check a bidder against the exclusion grounds of the Public Procurement Law. Have your own register extract and VAT number ready, and ask a prospective distributor for its registration number so that you can look it up.

Invoicing

Under Article 11(14) of the Accounting Law (Grāmatvedības likums), an invoice that a company issues to another company registered in Latvia must be drawn up as a structured electronic invoice; Article 1 defines it by reference to the European standard EN 16931. The timetable is set in the transitional provisions:

• Invoices to budget institutions (public bodies under the Law on Budget and Financial Management): the rule has applied since the amendment came into force on 1 January 2025; for contracts concluded by 31 December 2024 it applied from 1 January 2026 at the latest (transitional provision 9). Since 1 January 2026, structured e-invoice data for these invoices must also be passed to the State Revenue Service (transitional provision 10).
• Invoices between companies that are not budget institutions: the duty applies from 1 January 2028 (transitional provision 8, as amended on 5 June 2025, which moved the date from 2026), and the data must be passed to the State Revenue Service from the same date (transitional provision 10).

The Accounting Law applies to companies registered in Latvia and to branches and permanent establishments of foreign companies there (Article 3), so your Latvian distributor is directly affected, and a distributor selling to a ministry, state agency or municipality already invoices this way. Public buyers organised as state or municipal capital companies are not budget institutions in the sense of Article 3, so invoices to them fall under the 2028 date; check the buyer's legal form. A manufacturer invoicing a Latvian distributor from abroad is not obviously within these subjects, but confirm the position for your own set-up with your tax adviser.

Payment terms

The Civil Law (Civillikums) sets the payment rules for contracts for the supply of goods and services. Where a public buyer is the debtor, it is in default if it has not paid within 30 days of receiving the invoice (or of receiving the goods, or of an acceptance check, in the cases the article lists) (Articles 1668.1 and 1668.2); the parties may extend that to up to 60 days only where this is objectively justified by the obligation, and those terms cannot otherwise be changed by agreement (Article 1668.7). Between businesses, the parties may agree a payment term of up to 60 days, unless they expressly agree otherwise and the clause is not manifestly unfair to the creditor (Article 1668.6). Purchases through the EIS e-shop catalogues are paid after delivery only: EIS has stated since December 2022 that every EIS transaction is on a 100% post-payment basis. Plan your distributor's credit terms around these rules, and check contract terms with your adviser.

Where public demand is visible

Latvian procurement is published in layers set by the estimated contract value (Public Procurement Law):

• Under €10,000 for supplies and services, the procedures of Articles 8 and 9 do not apply.
• Small procurements, from €10,000 to under €42,000 for supplies and services (from €20,000 to under €170,000 for works): the buyer publishes a notice of the planned contract in the IUB publication system with at least 10 working days for tenders, and within 10 working days of signing the contract it publishes an information notice on the award (Article 9(1), (6) and (17)).
• Procurement procedures, from €42,000 for supply and service contracts (Article 8(4)). Within 10 working days of concluding a contract or framework agreement, the buyer publishes a contract award notice (Article 29(1)).
• Above the EU thresholds: where the estimated value reaches the thresholds set by the Cabinet of Ministers, the notice is sent through the publication system to the Publications Office of the EU for the Official Journal (Article 34(3)) and appears on TED. From 1 January 2026 the EU thresholds for supplies and services are €140,000 for central government authorities and €216,000 for other contracting authorities (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2152).

The publication management system is a state information system on the IUB website through which notices are prepared, published there or sent on to the Publications Office (Article 1, point 25). Its public side is a notice search at info.iub.gov.lv, with a CPV search. Within a month of approving its annual budget, each buyer must also publish its planned procurements in the state electronic system for tenders, which is EIS, with the subject, the planned CPV code and the planned quarter or month (Article 18(1)). That shows what a distributor is likely to bid for next.

These bands change on 1 January 2028. Amendments adopted on 14 May 2026 delete Article 9 and replace it with simplified procurements for supply and service contracts from €20,000 up to the thresholds set by the Cabinet of Ministers (new Article 9.1); the full procedures then apply to supply and service contracts only from those thresholds (Article 8(4) in its new wording), and each buyer publishes a procurement plan covering all its procurements in the IUB publication system (new Article 9.2), replacing the EIS planning notice of Article 18(1) (transitional provision 26).

The contract register

Within one working day of an award notice, a notice of changes during the contract, or a notice on contract performance, the IUB creates or updates an entry for that contract in its contract register (Article 60.1). Buyers must publish a notice on performance within 10 working days of a contract being performed (Article 33.1). Searching the register by supplier shows deliveries that never reach TED, including small procurements.

Electronic procurement and central purchasing

EIS, maintained by the State Digital Development Agency, has four parts: e-orders, an online shop in which several suppliers offer standard goods under framework agreements concluded by the central purchasing body; e-auctions; e-tenders, for preparing and submitting bids; and e-certificates. Latvian-registered suppliers can register in EIS online themselves. Direct-administration bodies must buy goods and services in the groups the Cabinet of Ministers sets from the designated central purchasing body once they spend €1,000 or more on a group within 12 months; for municipalities and their institutions the figure is €10,000 (Article 17(7) and (8)). In those categories, the suppliers on the EIS catalogues are the companies to approach.

Lawful first contact

The Latvia market page classes e-mail to companies as allowed, and this is the basis. Section 9(1) of the Information Society Services Law (Informācijas sabiedrības pakalpojumu likums) prohibits sending a commercial communication by e-mail, fax or automated calling systems to a recipient who has not given prior, free and unambiguous consent; section 9(2) allows a provider to use e-mail addresses obtained from its own customers for similar products. Section 9(6) then sets the scope: the prohibitions and restrictions in paragraphs one to three apply to commercial communications sent to natural persons. The consent requirement therefore does not extend to an e-mail addressed to a company.

One rule applies to every recipient. Section 9(4) forbids commercial e-mail that gives an invalid address to which the recipient could send a request to stop, and forbids ignoring a recipient's refusal of further communications; each prohibited message counts as a separate breach (section 9(5)). The Consumer Rights Protection Centre and the Data State Inspectorate supervise information society services within their competence (section 12(1)).

What the Law does not settle is whether a named employee's address, such as vards.uzvards@company.lv, counts as a communication to a natural person. The cautious route is to write to the general address the distributor publishes (info@ or sales@), and to use named contacts once the distributor has replied. Data protection law applies to any named person's details you process. In the message, explain why your range fits the distributor's portfolio, identify your company in full, include a working reply address and a clear opt-out line, and record and act on every refusal. A first approach in English will normally be understood (see the market page), and a short Latvian version alongside it shows you have done your homework. This is a summary, not legal advice; check your outreach plan with your adviser. For the rules that apply across the EU, see B2B outreach law in the EU: the five rules that apply everywhere.

What this means for a manufacturer

• Find the distributors through TED, the IUB notice search and the IUB contract register, and check the EIS catalogues if your category is centralised.
• Check each candidate in the Register of Enterprises, and have your own register extract and VAT number ready for theirs.
• Prepare Latvian labels, instructions, warranty terms and data sheets before the first meeting, with a complete English technical file behind them.
• Expect your distributor to need structured e-invoices for budget institutions now, and for all Latvian business customers from 1 January 2028.
• Keep payment terms within the Civil Law: 30 days, or up to 60 days where justified, where a public buyer pays, and up to 60 days between businesses unless expressly agreed otherwise.
• Expect competition from Lithuanian, Estonian and Finnish suppliers, and ask a prospective partner whether it can cover the other Baltic states.
• E-mail the distributor's general address with your identity and an opt-out, or meet it at a Riga fair such as Medbaltica for medical supplies.

Where Cresques fits

Create a market for Latvia, 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, along with the trade fairs where your industry meets. A company profile shows every award with value and buyer and an AI-researched role, distinguishing an independent distributor from a manufacturer's own subsidiary; for Latvian companies whose filed accounts we import, paid plans also show their financials. The first message is drafted in Latvian, with an English version, for e-mail with an opt-out; you send it yourself. E-mail alerts on new awards come with paid plans. Below the EU thresholds, Cresques does not show Latvian awards; search the IUB notices and contract register yourself by CPV code.