Taking part in an open auction

An open auction has no envelope. During the auction you see a live ranking and submit as many new bids as you want. Each new bid must be lower than the previous one.

Live Ranking

• Your own row says "Your bid". Competitors' names are never shown; they appear as "Supplier 2", "Supplier 3".
• Depending on the buyer's setting, competitors' amounts are shown or hidden. If hidden, it says "Supplier names and amounts are hidden" and only ranks are visible.
• If amounts are visible, "Current lowest bid" appears above the form.
• The ranking updates automatically. If it says "Connection lost, reconnecting…", the page reconnects by itself.

Submitting a bid

1. 1
   Open the bid tab on the tender page.
2. 2
   Enter a unit price for every item. There are no partial bids in an open auction. The Total Bid Amount is calculated automatically.
3. 3
   Look at the line above the form: "For a valid bid you can enter at most X" or "Your bid must be below X". This line takes all the rules into account together.
4. 4
   Optionally add a note and click Send Bid. For subsequent bids, the button's name becomes Submit New Bid.

Rules

• Your new bid must be lower than your current bid.
• If the buyer set a minimum decrement, you must reduce by at least that much. The step is calculated from your last bid or from the current lowest bid.
• If the buyer said "every bid must go below the lowest price", only a bid that would take the lead is accepted.
• If there is a visible ceiling price, you cannot bid above it.
• A bid cannot be withdrawn, only improved.

Last-minute extension

In most auctions, a bid arriving in the final minutes pushes the end back; you see the rule on the "Last-Minute Extension" row in the Tender Details tab, for example "Bid in the last 15 min: +15 min (at most 20 times)". When the time is extended, "Extended N times" appears above the ranking.

When time is up, the button says "Time Is Up" and no bid can be submitted. The buyer selects the winner after time is up; the winner takes all the items.