Principles of public procurement
At SNCF, we believe in strict compliance with public procurement guidelines. Learn more here about these guidelines and our quality requirements.
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Public procurement guidelines
As a state-owned enterprise, we follow public procurement guidelines to the letter.
The core principles behind these guidelines are:
- open access to procurement contracts. Notices are published in official journals and on this website
- competitive bidding for all contracts. Approved suppliers do not automatically win contracts
- equal treatment of bidders. Contracts are awarded to the most competitive, most reliable candidate
- transparent procedures. All suppliers and employees know the rules
- traceability. The procurement contracts and past history of approved suppliers are traceable
- confidentiality. Data from all bidders is kept confidential, whether they win the contract or not
Notices published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
The Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) publishes two types of notice:
- qualification notices--for products that require advance qualification
- tender notices--for invitations to tender covering specific projects
Non-OJEU announcements
These announcements do not appear in official tender notices and are usually used by regions to find service providers.
Browse notices
All current SNCF tender notices are posted on our e@si supplier platform at the link below. The full text of notices published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) may be viewed directly on the Journal’s website.
Applicable law
France’s railway reform act of 4 August 2014 (Law No. 2014-872) created the Public Rail Group (GPF), made up of three state-owned industrial and commercial enterprises, or EPICs (établissements publics industriels et commerciaux):
- SNCF EPIC to define Group strategy
- SNCF Réseau EPIC to manage, operate and develop the French rail network
- SNCF Mobilités EPIC to transport passengers and freight
Because all three EPICs are classified as contracting authorities, our procurement contracts are tightly regulated.
Since 1 April 2016, they have been governed by Directive No. 2014-25 on regulating public contracts, plus two transposing regulations: Order No. 2015-899 and Decree No. 2016-360.
Contracts initiated before 1 April 2016 are still governed by the statutes and regulations in effect through that date: Directive 2004-17, Order No. 2005-649 and Decree No. 2005-1308.