CPV Classification
Contents
Definition
CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) is the European statistical classification of goods and services procured by the public sector. It is established by law[1]. The CPV consists of a Main Vocabulary and a Supplementary Vocabulary, both available in 22 official EU languages.
Structure
The Main Vocabulary currently consists of about 9454 terms, listing goods, works and services commonly used in procurement. The CPV does not have a structured description for each code. The goods codes contain parts or combinations of information, such as the main name of a product and its type, and sometimes other details.
The system is hierarchical:
- 45 Divisions
- 272 Groups
- 1002 Classes
- 2379 Categories
- 5756 Sub-categories
Procurement Type
- CPV-codes that start with 0 up to and including 44 or 48 : Deliverables (Goods)
- CPV-codes that start with 50 up to and including 98: Services
- CPV-codes that start with 45: Works
NB: There are no codes that start with 46, 47 or 49.
Encoding
The coding structure uses a nine-digit code, the last being a check digit that serves to verify the previous digits.
- The first two digits come in a block, so as to accommodate 99 divisions (XX000000-Y)
- The next six digits each represent one level of classification, so there cannot be more than 9 groups at a given level of classification.
- The first three digits together identify the groups (XXX00000-Y) (so there can be 10 groups per division)
- The first four digits identify the classes (XXXX0000-Y) (so there can be 10 classes per group)
- The first five digits identify the categories (XXXXX000-Y) (so there can be 10 categories per class)
- The last three digits give a greater degree of precision within each category.
Zeros are placed at the end of codes, except for the first two digits, and they indicate the level of accuracy of the code (the more zeros it has, the more general it is). In fact where a given level of classification is not further subdivided, a ‘0’ is used in the position for the next more detailed level.
Example
As an example, a dental X-ray device would be classified with increasing accuracy as follows:
- Division 33 (33000000-0): Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products
- Group 33-1 (33100000-1): Medical equipments
- Class 33-1-1 (33110000-4): Imaging equipment for medical, dental and veterinary use
- Category 33-1-1-1 (33111000-1): X-ray devices
- Subcategory 33-1-1-1-2 (33111200-3): X-ray workstations
Top Level CPV Divisions
This is the CPV 2008 highest level segmentation [2]
| Section | Title |
|---|---|
| A | D1 |
| B | D2 |
