Selling into Luxembourg through distributors

How the market buys

Luxembourg is a small market with one place to look. The Portail des marchés publics, built by the Ministry of Mobility and Public Works with the State's IT centre (CTIE), has been running since February 2006 and gathers in one place the notices of contracting authorities for works, supplies and services. Anyone can search notices and download tender documents there free of charge, and the portal also lists award notices.

Under the amended Law of 8 April 2018 on public procurement, electronic communication is mandatory for procedures under Books II and III launched since 18 October 2018, and it runs through the portal: downloading the tender file, questions and answers, submitting bids and the exchanges after opening. Electronic signature of bids is required.

Language follows the country's three administrative languages. Under the Languages Law of 1984, French, German or Luxembourgish may be used in administrative matters, and legislation is written in French. At work, French is the main language of communication, and English has become the language of business and finance, very frequently used in meetings between people of different nationalities. A supplier should be ready to work in French first.

Lawful first contact

Luxembourg's text leaves a gap that a careful sender should not try to exploit. Article 11(1) of the amended Law of 30 May 2005 on privacy in electronic communications allows e-mail for direct prospecting only if it targets a subscriber or user who has given prior consent. Article 11(5) then says that paragraph (1) applies to the subscriber who is a natural person — which, read alone, leaves companies outside the consent rule.

What is unclear is the word "user", added to paragraph (1) in 2011. The law defines a user as a natural or legal person who uses an electronic communications service for private or professional purposes, which can include an employee at a work address, and paragraph (5) does not say how the consent rule applies to users. The data protection authority, CNPD, summarises the rule as protecting natural persons from unsolicited commercial e-mail without prior consent. We found no CNPD guidance that settles business e-mail.

What is clear: a marketing e-mail must not disguise the sender's identity and must give a valid address for requests to stop (article 11(4)), and a breach is punishable by imprisonment of eight days to one year and a fine of EUR 251 to 125,000, or either (article 11(6)).

The cautious route: write to a company's generic address, in French, with your full identity and an opt-out; treat named addresses as needing consent; and prefer a letter, a trade fair or an introduction for a first approach to a named director.

What local distributors expect

Luxembourg distributors serve a compact, multilingual market and expect a supplier to fit it:

• Documentation in French, with German where their customers need it; English is often acceptable for commercial discussion.
• Conformity evidence under EU rules — CE marking and declarations where the product is regulated.
• A clear territory: Luxembourg alone or together with neighbouring markets, stated in writing, with exclusivity discussed early.
• Order quantities and logistics that suit small volumes, with reliable lead times and service close at hand.
• Prices that hold for the length of a contract, and references from public buyers elsewhere.

How to enter, step by step

1. Prepare a French file. Provide documentation in French, with German versions where the distributor's customers need them; English can serve for the commercial discussion.
2. Assemble conformity evidence. Have CE marking and declarations ready where the product is regulated under EU rules.
3. Find who already wins your category. Start with the award notices above the EU thresholds on TED for your CPV codes; Cresques reads these and lists the winning companies. The Portail des marchés publics also lists award notices, and anyone can search notices and download tender documents there free of charge.
4. Prepare for electronic procedures. Communication in procedures under Books II and III of the amended Law of 8 April 2018 runs through the portal, and bids must carry an electronic signature, so have your documents ready in electronic form for the distributor's bids.
5. Make a cautious first contact. Write to a company's generic address, in French, with your full identity and a valid address for requests to stop; treat named addresses as needing consent, and prefer a letter, a trade fair or an introduction for a first approach to a named director.
6. Agree the territory early. State in writing whether the agreement covers Luxembourg alone or together with neighbouring markets, and discuss exclusivity at the start.
7. Fit the logistics to small volumes. Propose order quantities that suit small volumes, reliable lead times and service close at hand, with prices that hold for the length of a contract and references from public buyers elsewhere.
8. Follow up patiently. A category may see only a few notices a year, so keep watching TED and the national portal for the next award in your category.

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 — Luxembourg 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 companies that win, for example, laboratory supplies or school furniture contracts in Luxembourg can be identified from the public record. In a market this size a category may have only a few notices a year; award notices are also listed on the national portal.

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