Preliminary market consultation: supply chain tracking services for forced labour risks

This open market consultation is intended for service providers who are potentially interested in applying for any future public procurement procedures that will be published in 2026.

The purpose is to gather feedback on a future procedure under the Forced Labour Regulation. This process will provide supply chain traceability services to investigate products allegedly made with forced labour. The information gathered will be used to map the existing supply chain tracking solutions, their features and characteristics. This will help the Commission services shape the subject matter and budgeting of a future procurement of one or more tools to assist forced labour investigations. 

Economic operators who participated in the survey may then be invited for an individual presentation session with framed questions that will be provided by the European Commission up front. The purpose of the questions and presentations will be to clarify information already provided in the replies to the survey if needed. These individual sessions will be carried out via confidential video calls, which may be recorded exclusively for internal use purposes to help gather technical information. 

Invitations to the presentation sessions will be sent on a rolling basis as parties submit their replies to the questionnaire. The Commission services will not wait for the deadline to submit replies to the questionnaire before inviting participants to presentations. Interested groups are therefore encouraged not to wait until the end of the submission period to reply to the questionnaire. The presentation sessions may take place between the date of filling in the survey by the individual market player and no later than 31 January 2026.  

All information gathered through the survey and the individual sessions with economic operators will remain confidential and will be stored on the Commission's servers.