An IT project dispute is the conflict that arises when an implementation or bespoke development does not deliver what the client expected: late, over budget, or functionally inadequate. It is one of the most common disputes in IT law.
Legal basis
There is no separate regime. Depending on what was agreed, the contract is one of services under Article 7:400 of the Dutch Civil Code or of contracting for work under Article 7:750. The supplier must exercise the care of a good contractor, and owes a duty to warn: it must point out inaccuracies in the assignment and risks it knows or ought to know of, a standard aligned with Article 7:754. The client in turn owes a duty to inform and to cooperate. For termination, Article 6:265 on rescission and Article 6:74 on damages matter; most contracts limit those claims through an exoneration clause.
How it works in practice
The outcome almost always depends on the documentation: the requirements specification, the acceptance criteria, steering committee minutes and escalation letters. In agile projects that is harder, because scope shifts each sprint; there it is all the more important to record what was agreed as the deliverable and when it was accepted. Before rescinding, a notice of default with a reasonable period must in principle be given.
Where it goes wrong
Clients stop paying and halt the project without a notice of default, and thereby fall into default themselves. A second error is the absence of measurable acceptance criteria, so it cannot be established whether what was agreed has been delivered. Third, the duty to warn goes unused because the client never asked in writing for a risk analysis.
Related terms
The dispute connects to breach of contract, the exoneration clause and the SaaS agreement.
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