The General Services Administration‘s Office of Acquisition Policy is seeking public input on a proposed class deviation for differences between commercial supplier agreement terms and the Federal Acquisition Regulation and General Services Acquisition Regulation.In a request for information published Friday in the Federal Register, GSA said the class deviation indicated in Notice—MVA-2015-01 works to address federally incompatible terms in commercial supplier agreements.
These terms or clauses cover issues such as contract disputes, automatic contract renewal and contract termination, which cause vendors and agencies to expend time and legal resources on contract negotiations and adjustments to align with federal law.
According to GSA, the class deviation seeks to reduce the need for contract negotiations and establish the order of precedence in FAR’s clause on commercial items.
The class deviation covers the following 15 items that are inconsistent between commercial supplier agreements and FAR/GSAR:
- Definition of contracting parties
- Contract formation
- Patent indemnity
- Automatic renewals of term-limited agreements
- Future fees or penalties
- Taxes
- Payment terms or invoicing
- Automatic incorporation or deemed acceptance of third-party terms
- Contract governed by state or foreign law
- Equitable remedies, injunctions and binding arbitration
- Unilateral termination of commercial supplier agreement by supplier
- Unilateral modification of commercial supplier agreement by supplier
- Assignment of commercial supplier agreement or government contract by supplier
- Confidentiality of commercial supplier agreement terms and conditions
- Audits
The agency will accept comments through April 20 and implement the class deviation on May 4.
