French procurement law is governed by the following acts:

• Ordinance no. 2015-899 dated 23 July 2015 that sets the general framework for public work, service and supply contracts, as well as defence and security contracts covered by Directive 2009/81/EC;
• Order no. 2016-360 dated 25 March 2016, that applies to all contracts falling within the scope of Ordinance n° 2015-899 except defence and security contracts;
• Order no. 2016-361 dated 25 March 2016, that sets specific rules relating to defence and security contracts.

These texts implement EU Directives; they also edict rules that are specific to the French jurisdiction (the former public procurement code has been replaced by these new texts).

The acts listed above are strongly influenced by the European Union procurement rules since they implement the Directives 2014/24/EU of 26 February 2014 on public procurement. Directives 2014/24/EU and 2014/25/EU are in turn influenced by the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (Directive 2009/89/EC is not, since the contracts it covers are excluded from the scope of the GPA or exempted from its application).

The main principles applicable to public procurement procedures are:

• free access to public procurement contracts;
• equal treatment of bids and offers submitted by companies;
• transparency of procedures;
• effectiveness of public procurement; and
• best value for public money.

As regards aerospace procurement, there are no specific rules applicable to such contracts.

With respect to defence procurement (and, as such, defence aerospace), pursuant to article 16 of Ordinance no. 2016-360, some defence and security contracts are not subject to any competition rules, notably order:

• procurement contracts concerning weapons, ammunition and materiel when the essential interests of the French State's security require such an exclusion (according to article 346 of the TFEU);
• procurement contracts regarding which applying Ordinance no. 2016-360 would imply to disclose information contrary to the essential interests of the French State's security;
• procurement contracts relating to intelligence activities.

The other defence procurement contracts that do not meet these specifications are not subject to the general rules defined in Order no. 2016-360 but are subject to the specific rules laid down in Order no. 2016-361.