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ARTICLE · 30 JULY 2015

Protect Your Small Business: Defending Against Size Challenges

Fox Rothschild LLP
Fox Rothschild LLP
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Size protests filed with the SBA are a "low risk-high reward" method of attacking small business set-aside competition if you think the contract awardee is actually other than small.

United StatesGovernment, Public Sector
Nicholas Solosky
Nicholas Solosky
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Size protests filed with the SBA are a "low risk-high reward" method of attacking small business set-aside competition if you think the contract awardee is actually other than small.  Protests can be filed by just about any small business concern (so long as the challenger was an offeror on the contract) and have an extremely low evidentiary threshold.

Basically, if there is "some basis for the belief" that the competition is not small, you can set into motion a burdensome SBA investigation seeking a justification to disqualify.

But what do you do when you're on the kicking end of this scenario?  You know you are a legitimate small business – but you suddenly find yourself having to respond to detailed questions from the SBA and provide a truck load of documents to prove it.  The Answer:  Fight Back!

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