This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Read our Privacy Policy. Continue

FAQ Answer

Subscribe to Tenders Direct and you can ask our team of experts your own questions.

What are CPV codes?

CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes were developed by the European Commission as a standard system for classifying public sector tender notices across Europe.  There are nearly 10,000 codes, each one with a corresponding description that is translated into all 23 European languages. 

The problem with using CPV codes as a mechanism for filtering tender notices is there could be many codes to describe a requirement ranging from the very broad to the extremely specific, or conversely there may not be any codes at all to cover that particular requirement.  The relevancy and number of codes allocated to a notice not only depends on what is available, but also which codes the publishing authority selects.

We use CPV codes within our category system, along with all variations and permutations of the words and phrases actually used within the body of the tender notices.  Then just to be certain we are sending you relevant tenders, we have a team of reviewers who manually read the notices to check.