GSA Proposes to Codify Override of Some Commercial Terms

GSA issued a proposed rule to amend its acquisition regulation to make unenforceable certain common commercial supplier agreement (CSA) terms, a follow-up to the class deviation (discussed here) released last year. While some of the common commercial terms targeted arguably are, as GSA asserts, inconsistent or create ambiguity with federal law (e.g., provisions imposing non-federal law, arbitration provisions, and indemnification provisions), some likely are not (e.g., provisions giving precedence to government terms, placing restrictions on unilateral termination for breach, and requiring the contractor to provide the text of terms incorporated by reference).