A Whole New Marketplace: GSA's "Commercial Platforms" Initiative

The US General Services Administration has opened up several commercial marketplaces, including Amazon Business, to allow direct micro-purchases (generally up to $10,000) by federal users. With sales anticipated to total $6 billion annually, this "commercial platforms" initiative largely removes the federal procurement system as an intermediary in the purchasing process.

Join us as attorneys from Arnold & Porter's Government Contracts practice and special guest LTC Abraham Young (USA) discuss GSA's proof-of-concept effort, which has both reshaped procurement and potentially redrawn a marketplace. They will review the co-authored article they published on issues that the entirely new federal marketplace presents, including competition, transparency, cybersecurity, and customer choice. This discussion will be an essential briefing for contractors that might want to sell through this important new channel to their government customers, as well as for governments that are considering accessing platforms such as Amazon Business.