General Conditions of Purchase

(EN - February 11th, 2020)

These General Conditions of Purchase, hereinafter abridged as “GCPs” are intended to provide the framework of the contractual relations between the Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations (BULAC), a Public Interest Group, hereinafter “the Institution” and its contractors, hereinafter the “Contractor”, for all its procurement contracts, such contacts being documents drawn up by BULAC or a simple purchase order issued by this Institution.

BULAC is subject to the provisions of the French Public Procurement Code. Contracts awarded by BULAC (contracts drawn up by the Institution or simple purchase orders) are public procurement contracts by the terms of Article L. 1111-1 of that code.

• When a form entitled “purchase order” is issued by the Institution pursuant to a contract the documents of which have been drawn by the Institution after a publication and competition procedure, this form has the simple value of a “service order”as by the terms of the General Conditions of Contract (GCC) to which these documents refer.
• When a form entitled “purchase order” is issued by the Institution without reference to a contract the documents of which being drawn up by the Institution, possibly without prior publication and competition, such form constitutes and is a valid contract.

In such a case, the contract is awarded without publication nor competition pursuant to:

• Article R2122-1: when a pressing emergency arising from external circumstances that could not be foreseen does not allow to respect the minimum time limit required by formalized procedures.
• Article R2122-2: when no application nor offer have been applied within the stipulated time limit, or when only inadmissible applications or inappropriate offers have been presented, following a previous call for competition.
• Article R2122-3: in case of protection of exclusive rights.
• Article R2122-4: a market whose purpose is concerned with complementary deliveries executed by the initial supplier and which are destined, either to a partial renewal of supplies or facilities, either to an extension of existing supplies or facilities, under certain conditions.
• Article R2122-5: a market is concerned with the purchase of supplies or services in particularly worthwhile conditions such as ordering from a closing down economic operator.
• Article R2122-6: a marked concerning services contracted with the laureate of a competitive examination.
• Article R2122-7: when a market concerned with works or services is devoted to carrying out similar services to those assigned to the incumbent of a previous marked contracted after a competitive binding procedure, under certain conditions.
• Article R2122-8: procurement of an estimated pre-tax value below 25 000 €.
• Article R2122-9: non-school textbooks and procurement of an estimated pre-tax value below 90 000 €.

By accepting this contract, the Contractor declares that he has read and understood these conditions and accepts them in all their substance. The GCCs of the Institution take precedence over the General Sales Terms and Conditions of the Contractor. In any respect, the general or particular provisions laid out in documents from the Contractor shall not prevail over these General Purchase Conditions.

No provision in the Contractor’s sales conditions or any other document shall be binding upon BULAC, unless it has expressly accepted them.

Only provisions expressly laid out in the awarded contract shall take precedence over these GCPs.

Decreasing order of priority of the Contract constituent documents, which take precedence in case of a conflict between their provisions:

1. As applicable, the Contract drawn up by the Institution, as specifically written for this award;
2. As applicable, the purchase order and any Annexes thereto;
3. These GCPs;
4. The General Terms of Contract for the Provision of Routine Supplies and Services (GTC-PSS), unless the specific documents of the procurement Contract refer to other GCCs;
5. The technical and financial tender of the Contractor (e.g. quotation).

The terms of the performance conditions for the supply and service provision include the following environmental requirements for all purchases.

In the case of supplies:

• the Contractor shall provide minimum possible packaging;
• the packaging shall be made out of recycled and recyclable material;
• the Contractor shall recover the packaging used for his supplies.

In addition, all deliverable documents shall be transmitted in a digital format (PDF or equivalent) and/or on recycled or environmentally-certified paper made from wood coming from sustainably managed forests (e.g.: FSC or PEFC certification, or equivalent).

By accepting this Contract, the Contractor certifies his compliance with the provisions of Article 45 of order No. 2015-899 of July 23, 2015 on Government Procurement. Should the Contractor fail to comply with Article 8 herein, his Contract would be terminated pursuant to the provisions in the relevant GTCs.

All orders shall be placed based on a prior cost estimation.

This cost estimation is issued by the Contractor upon explicit request by BULAC, or is calculated by BULAC themselves based on the catalogue and online pricing tools made available by the Contractor.

BULAC shall notify its approval of the cost estimation by issuing a purchase order based on this estimate.

This purchase order must include:

• The identification of BULAC, as the purchasing organization
• The identification of the supplier
• The legal commitment number (EJ number) of the order
• The date of order
• The detailed description of the ordered supplies or services
• The pre-tax price of each item supplied
• The pre-tax total cost of the order
• The VAT rate applicable
• The price of each item supplied with VAT included
• The total cost of the order with VAT included
• The place of delivery/performance, specifying the recipient department/person
• The time of delivery/performance
• Specific conditions, if applicable
• The handwritten signature or manifest validation of the orderer

The purchase order must be signed by the Director of BULAC, or by a person holding his/her signature delegation. Failing that, the settlement of the corresponding payment request shall not be done.

The list of the authorized persons for signing or validating an order form is available at the following address: http://www.bulac.fr/achats.

The expense commitment of the Institution occurs at the signature of a contract in the form laid out in Article 1. When the contract is awarded in the form of a simple purchase order, its notification consists in transmitting a copy of the purchase order and its Annexes, if applicable.

Any contractual proposal by the contractor and subsequent to the contract award as set out hereunder shall be subject to an explicit acceptance by the Institution and by an amendment, if applicable.

The maximum time for the performance of the service shall be specified in the purchase order or the price quotation on which it is based.

Failing that, the maximum execution time shall be defined as follows:

If delivery is impossible or is particularly difficult to fulfil, the Contractor shall notify the reasons thereof within one month at the latest. The Library reserves the right to cancel the order.

If delivery is impossible or is particularly difficult to fulfil, the Contractor shall notify the reasons thereof within two months at the latest. The Library reserves the right to cancel the order.

The supplier will have two months after the date the order was issued to start the subscriptions to new periodicals.

If delivery is impossible or is particularly difficult to fulfil, the Contractor shall notify the reasons thereof within two months at the latest. The Library reserves the right to cancel the order.

The supplier will have the following delivery time frames for the supply of periodical issues:

For periodicals published in any country:

• for daily periodicals: within the week of publication
• for weekly periodicals: within two weeks after the date of publication
• for other publication frequencies: within two months after the date of publication

For other goods than books and periodicals, without any special specification in the purchase order, the delivery time frame shall be within one month.

The provisions of Article 14 of the GTC-PSS shall apply fully to these General Purchase Conditions.

The supplier provides BULAC with access to a contact person who can be reached by telephone, fax or email during normal business hours. This contact person must be in a capacity to provide any information about current orders, deliveries and invoicing.

Ship-to address:

The operational hours for deliveries are the following: from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 AM until 12:00 and from 2:00 PM until 5:30 PM.

In complement to Article 20 of the GTC-PSS, it should be noted that suppliers who do not perform the shipment of the supplies retain the mandate and responsibility of their proper delivery to the address specified in the purchase order for postal deliveries and on the premises specified in the purchase order in the case of a hand delivery or by a carrier.

Books shall be delivered in sturdy and waterproof packaging. In as much as possible, the supplier shall consolidate deliveries and invoices. The delivery and invoicing on a book-by-book basis shall not be accepted.

The following elements should appear on each parcel:

• The parcel's number
• The total amount of parcels
• The legal commitment number (EJ number) of the order

Each parcel should include a delivery slip or a duplicate of the invoice indicating the details of the parcel's content. A parcel with no included document should be considered as not having been delivered.

The delivery slip should include the following elements:

• the EJ number (or legal commitment number) listed on the order form
• for every title enclosed in the parcel:
  • its reference order as listed on the detailed order established by the BULAC Library
  • its price as listed on the invoice (tax-free and taxes included)
• the shipping costs, if any.

A delivery slip can only correspond to one specific order (and to one legal commitment). If books from different orders are delivered within the same parcel, different corresponding delivery slips should be included.

Periodicals shall be delivered either directly by post by the publisher or by a specific shipment by the supplier, depending on the type of publication. The supplier shall inform the library about the delivery method used.

The following elements should appear on each parcel:

• The parcel's number
• The total amount of parcels
• The legal commitment number (EJ number) of the order

Each parcel should include a delivery slip or a duplicate of the invoice indicating the details of the parcel's content. A parcel with no included document should be considered as not having been delivered.

The delivery slip should include the following elements:

• the EJ number (or legal commitment number) listed on the order form
• for every title enclosed in the parcel:
  • its reference order as listed on the detailed order established by the BULAC Library
  • its price as listed on the invoice (tax-free and taxes included)
• the shipping costs, if any.

A delivery slip can only correspond to one specific order (and to one legal commitment). If books from different orders are delivered within the same parcel, different corresponding delivery slips should be included.

BULAC shall perform the verifications and admissions in compliance with the provisions of Articles 22 and 25 of the GTC-PSS.

In addition, for books or periodicals:

Faulty books or periodicals, or not matching the order, will be returned postage due to the suppliers, and customs clearance due to foreign suppliers.

As soon as he receives the faulty document(s), the supplier shall provide that one copy of the same document(s) are delivered within the delivery time frame under Article 7.1 of these GCPs.

If one or more documents do not match the order, the supplier shall, upon receipt of the returned document(s), make a new payment request reflecting either the deduction of the amount of the unordered and unduly delivered items or the invoiced amount matching the document(s) actually ordered which shall be delivered as a replacement within the delivery time frame under Article 7.1 of these GCPs.

The contracting price is the price in the initial price quotation which caused the order, less the items which the suppliers has not delivered, i.e. the supplier issues a payment request matching the supplies or service actually served to the Institution.

Prices covers all costs, charges and taxes, and, as a general rule, all costs needed to perform the order. Only the shipping costs generated by the delivery can possibly be paid in addition.

If the suppliers finds themselves in the obligation to charge a price more than 10 % higher than the price appearing on the initial quotation, they must get in touch with the BULAC Library and ask for its explicit approval before shipping any order.

The supplier may send his payment request once the acceptance of the supplies has been decided (or fifteen days maximum after the parcels' delivery).

The supplier, as well as his co and subcontractors if any, must deposit their invoices on the French government platform Chorus Pro.

Suppliers can access online documentation at the following addresses:

Invoices are preferably charged in euros (€). If charging invoices in euros is not possible, a conversion would be established on the basis of the current exchange rate for the date of the invoice.

Invoices should mention the following elements:

• Invoice date
• Invoice number
• The legal commitment number (EJ number) of the order
• The date of the supplies' delivery or of the end of the service's execution
• The identity of the purchaser (GIP BULAC, SIRET n°187 512 702 00049)
• Name and address of the creditor
• Postal or bank account number
• A detailed description of each service and good supplied
• The unit price of the purchased goods or the hourly rate the supplied services, excluding VAT
• A possible price increase (shipping or conditioning fees for instance)
• The applicable VAT rate(s) and the corresponding amount of VAT charged
• Discount or surcharge rate
• The total price excluding tax (HT in French) and inclusive of all taxes (TTC in French)

The invoices should also include:

• The details of each document (reference of the order, title, publisher, ISBN)

• The details of each document (reference of the order or the subscription call number, title, ISSN, time frame of the subscription charged, number of fascicles provided for the said time frame)

• For periodicals with a regular frequency of publication, invoicing for the subscription year shall be made on a quarterly basis for the titles received.
• Otherwise, in the case of irregular publications, invoicing shall occur every two months based on the actual shipment of issues and for each issue.

BULAC shall pay the amounts due on the supplier’s account in fulfilment of this Contract in compliance with the provisions articles R2192-10 to R2192-36 of the Public Procurements Code.

In particular, the time-frame for payments is set out at 30 days after receipt of the payment request, or after the final acceptance date for supplies served if decided after the date of the payment request.

The assigned accounting officer is:

The supplier shall hold a civil liability insurance against damages or injuries arising from the performance of the supplies or services under this Contract.

He shall produce the relevant certificate upon request by BULAC, otherwise BULAC reserves the right to cancel the order.

If the process of purchase defined by the current General Purchase Conditions implies for the BULAC Library to collect data regarding natural persons (contact, referee, etc.), the BULAC commits to deal with these data in conformity with the dispositions of the French General Regulation on data protection (RGPD) and of the modified law of January 6 1978, as well with the specific dispositions linked to the protection of private life in the field of electronic communications.

The collected data are being treated in order to manage contracts and general accounting. The legal basis of the treatment is the execution of the contract as well as the legal accountancy obligations.

These informations are exclusively intended for the internal services of the BULAC Library. The duration of data detention is of ten years from the contract's expiration. (cf. Art. R2184-13 of the Code de la commande publique and instruction n° DAF/DPACI/RES2008/008 relative aux documents comptables).

The concerned persons can ask to have access to their related data, to modify them or if relevant to have them deleted. In order to exercise this right or for any question on data processing, one should contact the BULAC data protection delegate (dpo@bulac.fr) or the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (www.cnil.fr).

In the case of a dispute, French law is the only one applicable. The French administrative courts are the only courts having jurisdiction. Notifications and writings related to this Contract shall be written in French.

Article 3 of these General Purchase Condition of BULAC derogates from Article 4.1 of the GTC-PSS.