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CHAPTER 34PROHIBITED EXCHANGES

In the past, case law and the FAR identified three practices that were prohibited when holding discussions: technical leveling, technical transfusion, and auctioning. Generally, these practices were defined as follows:

Technical leveling. Successive rounds of discussions on the same issues with the intent to bring an inferior proposal up to the level of others. There was nothing improper about discussing deficiencies and weaknesses at least once; it was the successive rounds that could constitute technical leveling. Some also interpreted technical leveling as discussing every minute weakness in a proposal—the so-called ...