1. These terms apply to any enquiry you make via the telephone hotline service.  You are acting on behalf of a member of the Global Sourcing Association and we, DLA Piper UK LLP, are supporting the Global Sourcing Association in delivering the telephone hotline service. You accordingly agree that we do not owe you any direct duty of care or legal obligation in relation to the operation of the telephone hotline service, and that all inputs provided by us are provided free of charge but also without commitment or liability.

2. The "telephone hotline" service is offered by the GSA and is supported by us.  The hotline is suitable for generic enquiries related to questions of law or market approach in technology and sourcing, as we are unable to advise on specific agreements that you are negotiating.  By way of example only, an enquiry might be:

2.1 "What is the difference between best and reasonable endeavours?"

2.2 "How do you typically contract for the commercial benefits offered by robotics in a BPO deal?"

2.3 "in what circumstances might the Unfair Contract Terms Act apply to the terms I am negotiating?”

3. Ordinarily, we would expect each enquiry to involve a telephone conversation of no more than 30 minutes. If it is not possible to answer your enquiry within this period, we will inform you, and any further inputs from us may therefore be subject to separate agreement, and potentially a fee.

4. Please note that we are unable to review documents related to your enquiries.

5. Where suitable, we may respond to your query via email.

6. Our client for the telephone hotline service is the Global Sourcing Association.  Accordingly, the advice we provide is given in general terms only and you must seek legal advice before relying upon it in any way. We will not be liable for any actions you take (or omit to take) by reason of the fact that our inputs are provided on a free of charge basis.

7. As solicitors, we must ensure that we comply with our professional obligations in respect of conflicts of interests. To this end, by using the telephone hotline service, you agree:

7.1 that you have not already instructed DLA Piper or another firm to act in respect of your enquiry;

7.2 that you hereby waive any potential conflict that may arise in the future as a result of us having engaged with you via the telephone hotline service. In practice this means you cannot object to us acting against you or any member of your group in the future, including in relation to the matter which you may be calling us in relation to;

7.3 your enquiry is not specific to a transaction that you are undertaking with or in connection with any other party. The reason for this, is that we would have to conflict check against that other party.

8. We reserve the right not to provide the telephone hotline service at any time, including if we consider the enquiry not to be suitable or if you (or the business you represent) has made multiple enquiries in any given six month period.  We will endeavour to inform you of this, if you have already made an enquiry.