GSA Finally Confirms that Contractors Can Opt Out of Transactional Data Reporting

On Thursday, the General Services Administration formally announced that starting with the new solicitation refresh (anticipated in October 2017), participation in the Transactional Data Reporting pilot will be voluntary. Significantly, GSA has also announced that contractors that were forced into TDR (for new contract awards, option exercises, or the addition of a TDR-covered SIN) will have a one-time opportunity to opt back out of TDR. While the long-term fate of the TDR approach to pricing (which replaces the requirement for Commercial Sales Practices disclosures and Basis of Award customer tracking) remains uncertain, this announcement suggests that these long-standing approaches will not be completely eliminated any time soon.