Overview
FAR 52.212 is currently designated as "[Reserved]," acting as a structural placeholder within the Federal Acquisition Regulation to maintain the numerical integrity of the subpart dedicated to commercial products and commercial services. It contains no regulatory text itself, as the specific instructions and clauses for commercial acquisitions are located in the subsequent sub-sections (52.212-1 through 52.212-5).
Key Rules
- Placeholder Status: The "[Reserved]" designation indicates that the specific section number 52.212 does not currently house a provision or clause.
- Structural Organization: It serves as the parent header for the specialized series of provisions and clauses (52.212-1, 52.212-4, etc.) used in the acquisition of commercial products and services.
- Regulatory Continuity: Reserving the section allows the FAR Council to preserve the numbering scheme even if the primary section is empty or if previous content was deleted/relocated.
Practical Implications
- Solicitation Drafting: Contracting officers do not "insert" 52.212 into contracts; instead, they select the active sub-provisions (like 52.212-1 for instructions or 52.212-4 for terms and conditions) that fall under this category.
- Compliance Focus: Contractors should ignore the reserved header and focus their compliance efforts on the specific, active requirements detailed in the numbered sub-sections that follow it in a solicitation.