NAW Task Force proposes standards for e-marketplace agreements

The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has released a set of proposed standards for participation agreements for e-marketplaces.

The standards were developed by an NAW task force composed of several leading distributors of supplies for maintenance, repair and operations (MRO).

NAW is making these voluntary standards available to all suppliers and marketplaces so that they may be adopted rapidly by individual suppliers and marketplaces.

During the past year, a number of e-marketplaces have been established to bring together sellers and buyers of products and services, including MRO supplies. However, actual operations of these e-marketplaces have been delayed and many distributors, manufacturers and other sellers have not agreed to provide their products for sale on the e-marketplaces.

"There are a number of reasons for this delay, but one substantial roadblock to implementation has been the multiple, individual agreement forms for supplier participation developed by the e-marketplaces," the NAW explains. " These forms frequently contain terms that are ill-suited for commerce. Moreover, because of the fragmentation of these e-marketplaces, individual negotiations of these participation agreements have been expensive and time-consuming."

So the NAW task force was formed to develop standards for supplier participation agreements for e-marketplaces that would promote adoption of non-price terms that would be acceptable to both the participants and the e-marketplaces.

A complete copy of the standards is available on NAW’s website at http://www.nawpubs.org/standards.html