An FDI company regularly bids for construction and equipment-supply packages, with dossiers containing self-developed technical solutions, detailed price breakdowns and subcontractor lists. After losing one package narrowly, the project director hears the winning rival had obtained his price structure from a previous round. He asks: how far does bidding law keep dossiers confidential, and what extra self-protection is needed?
Governing legal framework
Bidding Law 22/2023/QH15 sets the confidentiality frame for contractor selection, with Article 77 regulating secrecy of documents and information in bidding: participants in the process — the bid solicitor, the expert team, managing agencies — must keep bidding dossiers and related information confidential, and violators are handled under law. In parallel, technical solutions and price structures meeting Article 84 of the IP Law remain the bidder trade secrets: unlawful access or use is actionable under Article 127, even where the information leaked through the bidding channel. The two layers complement each other: the bidding layer binds insiders of the process, the IP layer protects against any outside infringement.
Key application points
What companies often misunderstand is the post-opening disclosure scope: information about the winning bidder and the winning price is published as prescribed, which is normal and not a leak; what needs protection is the detailed dossier — technical solutions, cost structures, subcontractor lists and private commercial terms — which is not subject to publication. For the protection to work in practice, the dossier should be marked confidential by section, with a cover note stating it contains trade secrets under Article 84, and the electronic version filed through the system should separate sensitive parts to the extent the rules allow. On suspecting a leak, identify the channel: insiders of the bidding process call for the bidding complaint mechanism; a competitor using the information calls for the IP and competition route.
Internally, the weakest link is usually the bid team sending documents via personal email and uncontrolled printing. A minimum procedure includes: one bid-file custodian, a standard confidential cover template, a per-package viewer list, and a print-issuance log. For high-value packages, consider splitting the dossier into the mandatory public part and a separately marked detailed technical annex, so the solicitor can store it under the right regime. On finding a rival using your exact solution or price structure, the evidence to gather is the rival documents and duplication traces beyond normal professional coincidence — the basis for an Article 127 claim and a bidding complaint.
Recommended sequence of actions
- Mark each dossier section confidential, with a cover note citing the Article 84 trade-secret basis.
- Set an internal bid-file procedure: a single custodian, viewer lists, printing and issuance logs.
- Separate sensitive technical annexes from the mandatory public dossier part to the extent the rules allow.
- On a suspected leak: identify the leak channel before acting — bidding complaints for process insiders, the IP and competition route for rivals.
FAQs
How are price and technology secrets in a bidding dossier protected?
Protect through two layers. The bidding layer: Bidding Law 22/2023, in which Article 77 on secrecy of documents and information binds the bid solicitor and process participants to keep bidding dossiers confidential. The IP layer: technical solutions and price structures meeting Article 84 of the IP Law are the bidder trade secrets, protected against all unlawful access and use under Article 127. For self-protection, the company must mark the dossier confidential, manage the bid-preparation process tightly and separate sensitive parts from the mandatorily public part — the law only protects effectively where the bidder itself treats the information as secret.
Is information in a bidding dossier made public?
Only in part. Information on contractor-selection results, including the winning bidder and the winning price, is published under Bidding Law 22/2023 — that is mandatory transparency, not a leak. By contrast, detailed dossier content — technical solutions, detailed cost tables, subcontractor lists — is not published and sits under the bidding-document confidentiality regime. Companies should distinguish the two groups when designing dossiers: keep sensitive data out of the part that must be public, and mark and package the confidential part separately.
What if a competitor gets to see our dossier?
Handle it by leak channel. If the leak came from a bidding-process insider, use the complaint and petition mechanism in bidding under Bidding Law 22/2023, asking for clarification of the confidentiality responsibility of the solicitor or expert team. If a rival already used the information to win or to price bids, the company additionally has the civil route under Article 127 of the IP Law on trade-secret infringement and the unfair-competition route. The precondition is proving the information is an Article 84 secret and tracing that the rival used that very information, so evidence must be fixed as soon as the leak is discovered.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council