Selling into Belgium through distributors

How the market buys

Belgium is a federal state made up of communities and regions, as the first article of its Constitution puts it. There are three regions — Walloon, Flemish and Brussels — and four language areas: French-speaking, Dutch-speaking, German-speaking and bilingual Brussels-Capital. Public buying follows that structure: federal services, regional and community administrations, provinces and municipalities each buy for their own remit.

The national platform is e-Procurement, built by FPS BOSA, the federal policy and support service, for publishing and managing public contracts online. It is free for buyers and businesses, and since September 2023 one platform covers what the former e-Notification, e-Tendering and e-Catalogue applications did: publishing and consulting notices, submitting tenders and ordering under framework agreements. The Brussels regional administration, for example, publishes its contracts above EUR 30,000 excluding VAT there.

For a supplier the practical consequence is language. Selling across Belgium means working in Dutch in the Dutch-speaking area, in French in the French-speaking area, in German in the German-speaking area in the east, and in both French and Dutch in Brussels. In our analysis of TED award notices for supplies (September 2026), 83% of the winners in the 1,967 notices from buyers in Belgium were companies registered in the country (96% across the 30 EU and EEA countries); those local winners include distributors and dealers as well as manufacturers' own local subsidiaries — see our methodology. For a foreign manufacturer that points to a Belgian distributor that already works in the right language and holds the right references.

Lawful first contact

Belgium allows a first e-mail to a company, but the rule is narrow. Article XII.13 of the Code of Economic Law prohibits the use of e-mail for advertising without the recipient's prior, free, specific and informed consent. The Royal Decree of 4 April 2003 exempts two cases; the one that matters for a new contact is legal persons, when the electronic address used is impersonal.

The report to the King that accompanies the decree draws the line. Generic addresses such as info@, contact@, sales@ or orders@ may receive unsolicited advertising when it is clear they belong to a company. An address such as firstname.lastname@company.be is a natural person's address, whether used for work or not, and needs that person's prior consent. The product or service offered must be aimed at legal persons, and it is for the sender to prove that the exemption applies. The data protection authority adds a caution: a functional address used and signed only by one person can itself be personal data.

Every advertising e-mail must explain the right to object to future messages and offer an electronic means to do so, and a request to stop must be acknowledged and acted on. Enforcement is shared: the FPS Economy was given powers under the rules that transpose the ePrivacy Directive, and the Data Protection Authority also supervises them where personal data is processed, as its recommendation on direct marketing points out.

In practice, write to the distributor's generic address, in the language of its region, about an offer for businesses; identify yourself fully and include an opt-out. To reach a named buyer or director, use a letter, the sector's trade fair or an introduction. Once a distributor writes to you, correspondence by e-mail is no longer unsolicited.

What local distributors expect

Belgian distributors serve buyers in different languages and judge a supplier on how it handles that:

• Documentation in Dutch and French — and German if they serve the German-speaking area: technical sheets, instructions and commercial terms.
• Conformity evidence under EU rules — CE marking and declarations where the product is regulated, and test reports against the standards buyers name in their tender documents.
• A clear territory: one distributor for the whole country, or one per language region. Settle exclusivity before the first order.
• Margin, project pricing and the ability to hold a price for the duration of a framework.
• Reliable lead times, a plan for spare parts and returns, and references, ideally public-sector ones.

How to enter, step by step

1. Find who already wins your category. In TED's advanced search, set the buyer country to Belgium, the notice type to results and add your CPV codes; the companies named in the award notices are your shortlist. Cresques runs this search for the CPV categories you choose. Note where each buyer sits — Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels or the German-speaking east — because that tells you the language the winner works in.
2. Follow national notices on e-Procurement. The FPS BOSA platform is free for businesses: consult notices and submit tenders in one place. As of October 2026 we could not confirm from an official source how Belgium's central purchasing arrangements admit new suppliers, so take the buyer named on each award notice as your guide.
3. Prepare documentation by language. Technical sheets, instructions and commercial terms in Dutch and French, and in German if the distributor serves the German-speaking area.
4. Assemble conformity evidence. CE marking and declarations where the product is regulated, and test reports against the standards Belgian buyers name in their tender documents.
5. Choose your territory model. One distributor for the whole country, or one per language region; settle exclusivity before the first order.
6. Make the first contact lawfully. E-mail the distributor's generic address (info@, sales@) in the language of its region, about an offer for businesses, identify yourself fully and include an electronic way to object. To reach a named buyer or director, use a letter, the sector's trade fair or an introduction. Keep a record of how the exemption applies: the burden of proof is on you.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring margin, project pricing and a price you can hold for the duration of a framework, reliable lead times, a plan for spare parts and returns, and references, ideally from public buyers.
8. Follow up and honour objections. Acknowledge and act on any request to stop. Once a distributor has written to you, correspondence by e-mail is no longer unsolicited.

Where the evidence comes from

Above the EU thresholds — EUR 140,000 for supplies and services bought by central government bodies and EUR 216,000 for other public authorities from 1 January 2026 — Belgian buyers must publish contract award notices, and those notices appear on TED, the online supplement to the Official Journal of the EU. Each notice names the winning company and carries CPV codes, so the distributors that repeatedly win, for example, laboratory equipment or office furniture contracts in Flanders or Wallonia can be identified from the public record. National notices are consulted on e-Procurement.

Cresques reads the award notices for the CPV categories you choose and shows who already sells that category in Belgium. It does not help you bid for the contracts; the notices are evidence of who the buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.