Fair Opportunity
Fair opportunity is the requirement at FAR 16.505(b)(1) that every awardee of a multiple-award contract be considered for each order exceeding the micro-purchase threshold. Exceptions such as urgency, a single capable awardee, or a logical follow-on must be justified in writing.
Multiple-award IDIQ contracts move competition to the order level: FAR 16.505(b)(1) obligates the contracting officer to consider every awardee for each order above the micro-purchase threshold. Procedures scale with value. Past $7.5 million, the floor is a written notice of the requirement, a reasonable response period, disclosed evaluation factors, and a postaward debriefing on request (16.505(b)(1)(iv)).
Orders placed without fair opportunity need an exception under 16.505(b)(2) (urgency, only one capable awardee, logical follow-on, satisfying the minimum guarantee, a statutory requirement, or a set-aside), backed by a written justification and posted publicly within 14 days when the order exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold.
Remedies are narrow by design. Complaints go to the agency task-order ombudsman (16.505(b)(8)); GAO protests are barred unless the order exceeds the contract's scope, period, or maximum value, tops $10 million at civilian agencies, or tops $35 million at DoD — a floor the FY2025 NDAA raised from $25 million. Logical follow-on is the exception that gets stretched; it deserves sole-source rigor.
Regulatory Reference
FAR 16.505(b); 41 U.S.C. 4106(c), (f); 10 U.S.C. 3406(c), (f)
RFO Status
The Part 16 model deviation relocates fair opportunity from 16.505(b) to a tiered 16.507, with separate procedures at the micro-purchase, simplified acquisition, and $7.5 million breakpoints and exceptions at 16.507-6, so confirm section numbers against your agency's adopted deviation.
Category
Processes & Methods
How AcqBot Helps
AcqBot determines which fair-opportunity tier an order value lands in, drafts the notice or the exception justification with the right cites, and flags orders near the $10 million and $35 million protest thresholds while the file can still be strengthened.
Related glossary entries
Sources Sought Notice
A Sources Sought Notice is a pre-solicitation announcement, typically posted to SAM.gov, asking companies to identify their interest and capability to perform a prospective requirement — primarily used as market research to shape competition and set-aside decisions.
Request for Information (RFI)
A Request for Information (RFI) is a formal market research instrument used to gather industry input on capabilities, approaches, pricing structures, or draft requirements when the government is not yet ready to solicit — responses are voluntary and non-binding.
Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA)
Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) is a source selection process that awards to the lowest-priced offeror whose proposal meets minimum acceptability standards — no credit is given for exceeding requirements, and tradeoffs between price and quality are not permitted.
Best-Value Tradeoff
The best-value tradeoff process permits award to other than the lowest-priced or highest-rated offeror when the source selection authority documents that the superior proposal's benefits are worth its price premium, or that a cheaper proposal's savings outweigh its weaknesses.