The Swiss Federal Procurement Commission (FPC) recently concluded new General Terms and Conditions (GT&Cs) for IT services, which will enter into force this October. The GT&Cs are used by the Federal Offices and by the SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) and the ETH Domain (ETH Zurich, ETH Lausanne). The GT&Cs are important for the IT industry since they must be regularly accepted by suppliers bidding for Federal contracts if they wish to participate in the tendering process.

The previous GT&Cs date from 1998. One of the objects of the new GT&Cs is to adapt to current technological, organizational and legal conditions.

The new GT&Cs are designed to be more flexible in use. Provision is therefore made to allow deviation from the GT&Cs by means of appropriate contractual agreements, where this would be useful for the procurement project in question.

Whether the revision of the GT&Cs may be considered a success remains to be seen in practice, when the new GT&Cs have proven their worth as the basis for contracts with successful IT suppliers bidding in procurement projects.