A single-bid lot is an awarded lot that received exactly one bid. The buyer published a competition, one company submitted a tender, and the lot was awarded. The count is bids received, recorded on the award notice.
The ranking covers TED contract-award notices for the EU27 and Norway, published from October 2025 to September 2026. It uses awarded lots that have a reported bid count. Across those lots, 33.1% received exactly one bid. Poland is at 52.5%. Finland is at 15.3%, 967 of 6,337 lots, the lowest share of the 28 markets.
A high share means that, in that market, a large portion of awarded lots with a bid count had no second bidder. It describes the award notices. It does not say the buyer designed the documents to keep others out, and it does not say a single bid was unlawful.
The sector changes the odds inside the same year
The same award notices, grouped by the 20 largest CPV divisions, show a wide spread in the median number of bids per lot.
| Sector | Single-bid share | Median bids per lot |
|---|---|---|
| Lab and precision instruments | 57.2% | 1 |
| Software | 53.5% | 1 |
| Medical equipment and pharma | 49.6% | 1 |
| Construction work | 11.6% | 4 |
Medical lots sit at a median of one bid: 68,006 of 137,084. Construction work sits at a median of four: 6,701 of 57,624 were single-bid. Lab instruments are higher than medical, at 57.2%. Software is 53.5%, also a median of one.
A supplier reading a medical or software notice in this set is looking at a sector where the median awarded lot drew one bid. A supplier reading a construction notice is looking at a sector where the median drew four. The country ranking and the sector chart answer different questions. Use both before treating "Europe" as one competitive field.
Where several lots sit inside one procedure, score each lot on its own. If the days, the evidence, and the likely number of bidders do not support a submission, that belongs in the bid or no-bid check.
A single bid and a lowest-price award are separate facts. One describes how many tenders arrived. The other describes whether quality was scored. The days the buyer gave suppliers to prepare are in what a tender response window is.
Sources
- TED Search API v3, contract award notices (can-standard), EU27 and Norway, published October 2025 to September 2026. Awarded lots with a reported bid count. The bid count prefers TED field
tenders. Where that field is absent and the electronic-submission count matches the lot count, that count is used instead. - Sector figures use the main CPV division of the procedure, for the 20 largest divisions by awarded lots with a bid count. Notices with mixed lot outcomes are excluded from the sector chart.
