Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations have
been grappling with the application and enforcement of force
majeure provisions in their commercial contracts, on which see our
past alert.
Whether or not service providers seek to rely on force majeure
provisions to excuse non-performance, customers will be well-served
in familiarising themselves with and using other contractual tools
available to them in order to (i) manage the ongoing provision of
services which remain unaffected or less affected by COVID-19, (ii)
mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on those services which are
affected and (iii) safeguard their contractual position. Where
these tools are not available customers should consider updating
templates and procurement procedures.
