17th & 18th October 2001
ICT Clauses?
Very few references to ICT's in existing contracts
–Limited to specifying software/file formats
–“AutoCAD 14 or later to be used”
–JCT’98: No mention of ICT or even, for example, email
–No legal cases specifically involving ICTs
This study gathered examples of existing clauses and legal cases concerning the special field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Finland, Germany, Italy and the UK.
The analysis of some 3000 pages of German construction contracts [3.2.1] for large, technically advanced projects found few references to ICT's.  Similar position in other countries.
Where mentioned, these references were typically the specification of a particular type of CAD software, for example AutoCAD 14 or later to be used on a specific project, or that 'data has to be valid, secure, well organised and properly managed'.
In Italy, the situation is similar to that in Germany.  Where ICTs are mentioned in a contract the reference will be limited to specifying a drawing exchange format or a textual file format (such as a pdf file).
This is further reinforced by findings from the UK study, which analysed the JCT'98 contract.  This suite of contracts makes no explicit reference to information technology or even, for example, email [a similar position to all of the standard UK forms of contract].