On Thursday 14 July 2022, Tom de Wit and Esmée Fonville held a seminar in Eindhoven on the ‘duty of care of the IT supplier‘. The attendees all come into contact with (large) IT projects in practice, as customer, supplier or consultant. It is important for them to know what can be expected from an IT supplier during the implementation, construction or maintenance of software. The rationale for this duty of care is the information imbalance between parties. Customers often have little knowledge of IT and are therefore largely dependent on IT suppliers.
We kicked off with an introduction to the legal embedding of the duty of care and the duty of care in agreements. Then, we covered a wide range of relevant case law, which was discussed by the attendees during the seminar. For example, thoughts were exchanged on whether the special duty of care should lose importance when the customer is a large party with a large IT department or is assisted by external consultants.
IT mediator Joost van Boeschoten then talked about partnerships and business collaborations with IT suppliers. He stressed the importance of thinking about how to structure the collaboration before signing a contract. What interests and goals are the parties pursuing? In our IT litigation practice, we notice how important it is for parties to think about this at an early stage.
After the seminar, we discussed examples from practice over drinks.
On 13 October 2022, we will be hosting another seminar on the IT service provider’s duty of care, but this time in the region of The Hague. Keep an eye on our website for more information.
