Selling into Serbia through distributors

How the market buys

Serbian public procurement is governed by the Law on Public Procurement (Official Gazette 91/2019, amended by 92/2023), which has applied since 1 July 2020. It covers purchases of goods and services from RSD 1,000,000 and works from RSD 3,000,000. All notices go through one channel: the Public Procurement Portal (Portal javnih nabavki), the single information system on which buyers publish notices, procurement documents and decisions, and which gives every interested person free, unrestricted access to search, view and download them. The Public Procurement Office (Kancelarija za javne nabavke) sets the standard notice forms and the procurement vocabulary, which follows the EU's CPV; buyers must use its codes to describe what they buy.

Procedures run in Serbian. A buyer may also prepare documents in a foreign language and may allow a tender, or part of it, in one, but the Serbian version prevails in a dispute.

Part of the state's demand is pooled. Under Article 78 a buyer may obtain goods or services through framework agreements or contracts concluded by a central purchasing body. At national level that body is the Administration for Joint Services of the Republic Bodies (Uprava za zajedničke poslove republičkih organa), whose framework agreements obliged bodies use under a Government regulation (Official Gazette 25/23); its current list includes office supplies, paper products, fuel and lubricants and computer hardware.

Serbia has been an EU candidate since March 2012; accession negotiations opened in January 2014, and the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) has been in force since September 2013. The SAA's transitional period has ended, and it eliminates duties on bilateral trade, with a few exceptions for some agricultural and fishery products. For a manufacturer the consequence is that Serbian buyers deal with companies that tender in Serbian and deliver and service locally — often a Serbian distributor.

Lawful first contact

Three laws overlap, and the strictest decides. Article 148 of the Law on Electronic Communications (2023) allows calls, including automated calling, fax, e-mail and other electronic messages for direct advertising only with the prior consent of the end user who receives them. Under Article 4 a user is any natural or legal person using a publicly available electronic communications service, so a distributor's general address is protected as much as a named manager's. The same article bans hiding the sender's identity and requires a free way to stop further messages. Article 8 of the Law on Electronic Commerce adds that commercial messages may be sent electronically only with the prior consent of the person they are addressed to.

The Law on Advertising points the other way: Article 63 requires consent for direct advertising only to natural persons and says that restriction does not apply to business communication. That exemption lifts only the Advertising Law's own rule, not the two consent requirements above. In practice, a cold e-mail or sales call to a Serbian distributor needs prior consent.

What works: a letter by post in Serbian to the managing director or purchasing manager. The Advertising Law counts addressed letters as direct advertising (Article 62) but exempts business communication from consent. If you write to a named person, Article 37 of the Law on Personal Data Protection gives them the right to object at any time to processing for direct advertising, after which you must stop, and requires you to tell them of that right clearly and separately from other information, at the latest in your first letter. The sector's trade fair and an introduction through a partner or customer also work. Once a distributor has written to you, you can correspond by e-mail.

What local distributors expect

Before listing a new manufacturer, Serbian distributors will want:

• Serbian-language instructions and safety information. The Law on Technical Requirements for Products and Conformity Assessment (49/2021) obliges manufacturers, importers and distributors to make sure products come with the prescribed instructions and information in Serbian. The Constitution puts Serbian and the Cyrillic script in official use; the Latin script is used as the Law on the Official Use of Languages and Scripts provides.
• Conformity evidence. Where a Serbian technical regulation transposes EU legislation requiring CE marking, that regulation sets the marking; others may prescribe the Serbian conformity mark. A designated Serbian body may issue a domestic certificate without a new assessment when the foreign certificate comes from a body in the EU's register of notified bodies. For products outside EU-harmonised rules, goods lawfully marketed in the EU, Türkiye or the EEA are presumed to comply.
• A clear answer on customs clearance and delivery terms.
• A defined territory, an open discussion of exclusivity, and prices that hold for a framework agreement.
• Service, spare parts and references close to the customer.

How to enter, step by step

1. Find your categories. Upload a brochure or enter your website in the Cresques materials reader to get suggested CPV categories; Serbian notices use codes from a vocabulary set in line with the CPV.
2. Find who already wins them. Search the Public Procurement Portal for award notices (obaveštenje o dodeli ugovora) and award decisions (odluka o dodeli ugovora) in those categories and note the winners; notices from utilities (sectoral buyers) also record where the goods originate.
3. Check central purchasing. See whether state bodies buy your category through the Administration for Joint Services' framework agreements, which it publishes on its website. If they do, the supplier on the agreement holds that business.
4. Prepare Serbian documentation. Instructions and safety information in Serbian, and a product file a distributor can use in tenders that run in Serbian.
5. Settle conformity. Identify the Serbian technical regulation for your product: CE marking where it transposes EU law, otherwise possibly the Serbian mark, with a domestic certificate based on your EU notified-body certificate where one exists.
6. Make the first contact by letter, at a fair or through an introduction. Write by post, in Serbian, to the managing directors of the distributors in the award notices. Do not send a first e-mail or make a cold call: both need prior consent under Article 148.
7. Prepare the first meeting. Bring a price list that holds for a framework agreement, delivery and customs terms, a territory and exclusivity proposal, and your documentation pack.
8. Follow up within the rules. Continue by e-mail once the distributor has written to you, stop if a named recipient objects, and keep checking the portal for new awards in your categories.

Where the evidence comes from

A Serbian buyer must publish the award decision on the Public Procurement Portal within three days of adopting it (Article 146) and send the award notice for publication within 30 days of concluding the contract or framework agreement (Article 109); awards under framework agreements are published in quarterly summaries. The award notice carries CPV codes and gives the winner's name and address and the contract value or the highest and lowest tenders; notices from utilities (sectoral buyers) also record whether the goods originate in Serbia, the EU or another country.

These notices are not published on TED, the online version of the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU: the provision that would publish notices above the EU thresholds in the Official Journal applies only from the day Serbia joins the EU. Cresques reads award notices on TED and does not read the Serbian portal today. A manufacturer can search the portal directly, free of charge. Cresques does not help you bid; the notices are evidence of who Serbian buyers already trust, and the lawful first contact above is how you reach them.