How to defend yourself against fraudulent licensing vendors (1/2)

In order to effectively defend themselves against fraudulent licensing vendors, it is essential for sponsors to have a basic understanding of the issues surrounding their sales. There are many risks associated with buying licenses from the open market, and in this article we highlight the most important ones and give advice on how to prevent them.

Elimination of risks of defective performance

Even with secondary licences, it is better to prevent problems. Due to the complexity of the software purchase issue, every contracting authority faces the question of how to eliminate or at least minimize the risk of defective performance when purchasing software licenses. Contracting authorities can use the tools provided by the Public Procurement Act to prevent these risks of defective performance.

For example, according to the law, tenders of bidders who have already been excluded in the past for previous defective performance can be excluded from the procedure. Thus, when selecting a supplier, the evaluation criterion may be to look at the history of a previous procurement and see who has been excluded in the past for failure to meet the condition for proper performance. It is therefore clear that the appropriate setting of selection criteria is essential. Setting qualification requirements, checking references and excluding bids from suppliers with a history of defective performance are just some of the tools provided by the law. While checking references may sometimes seem like a chore, it is an activity that will pay off many times over. So where do you start if you need licenses from the open market?

According to the law, tenders of tenderers who have been excluded in the past for previous defective performance can be excluded from the procedure.

Checking and compiling documentation or complete documentation is the basis of everything

When purchasing software, it is important to ensure that the documentation is transparent and complete. Our Procurement Methodology summarises our experience and practices in the field of software procurement through tenders. The methodology provides useful information and guidelines that you as a procuring entity can use when reviewing and compiling documentation for software purchases.

An important aspect is to become familiar with at least the necessary legal foundations and case law on secondary licences. Knowledge of this legislation will help the contracting authority in the evaluation of the documentation and the evaluation of tenders.

Request a checklist to evaluate the documentation

Next time, we'll take a look at the most common tricks used by fraudulent sellers and other risks to avoid.