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Clauses · FAR · Ethics and integrity

FAR 52.203-10 Price or Fee Adjustment for Illegal or Improper Activity

Does the regulation require it to flow down?

No

(c) does not require inserting anything in the sub — it exposes the prime to a price reduction for a violation BY the sub ('by an amount not to exceed the amount of profit or fee reflected in the subcontract'). That is exactly why primes include a mirror clause: to pass down to the sub the cut the government applies.

A clause can reach your subcontract without a mandate. Once it is in your document, it is a contract term all the same. The missing mandate is a fact about the regulation. It is not a ruling on your order.

Checked against acquisition.gov on 2026-08-04 · edition MAY 2014 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗

What it makes you produce

One item for your checklist.

  1. Nothing to send, ever

    There is no paperwork here. It is a rule you follow while you perform the work.

    • Nothing to send — the clause is the price and fee reduction that follows a procurement integrity violation under 41 U.S.C. 2102 or 2103

      FAR 52.203-10(a)

When it is used

Prescribed for prime contracts above the SAT ($350k), except commercial acquisitions — FAR 3.104-9(b). It does not mandate flowing down, but (c) reaches subcontractor violations: the government reduces the PRIME's price/fee by up to the profit reflected in the subcontract.

Read closely

No paragraph asks for a submission. (b) sets the size of the cut by contract type — the whole fee on a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, 10 percent of the initial price on a firm-fixed-price one — and (c) reaches a violation by a subcontractor, capped at the profit or fee in that subcontract. The hygiene it rests on is 52.203-8's: bid, proposal and source selection information stays where it was.

The 6 templates that name it, with the line
233RTX Flowdown of U.S. Government Contract Clauses Under U.S. Government ContractsRTXline 818255GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-005 — General Provisions, Firm Fixed Price PO under U.S. Government Contract (Non-Commercial)General Dynamicsline 889243GD Mission Systems SCM-TMP-048 — T&M Purchase Orders for Non-Commercial Items in Support of a U.S. Government ContractGeneral Dynamicsline 1806240L3Harris LGL-50.F1 — General T&C and Flowdown Clauses for Other Than Commercial Products/Services under a U.S. Government ContractL3Harrisline 1301273BAE Systems Inc. USGOVA — FAR/DFARS Flow Down Provisions for Subcontracts/Purchase Orders under a U.S. Government (DoD) Prime ContractBAE Systemsline 701178AAR Component Services NY — U.S. Government Contract FAR and DFARS Clauses Incorporated by ReferenceAAR Corpline 97

Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.203-10 + prescription 3.104-9(b) (verified 2026-08-04)

This is research, not legal advice. It states what the regulation says about this clause and cites the paragraph behind it. It does not rule on your order, and it does not rule on whether a prime's markings are correct.