Clauses · FAR · Insurance and liability
FAR 52.246-16 Responsibility for Supplies
Does the regulation require it to flow down?
No
No mandate, and the clause never mentions subcontractors. Primes flow it down because it is the only clean way to move risk of loss to whoever is holding the goods: without a mirror clause the prime carries risk to the Government under its own 52.246-16 while having no matching right against the sub whose shipment burned.
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 2026-08-05 · edition APR 1984 · base v0.9.3 Read the text ↗
What it makes you produce
One item for your checklist.
Nothing to send now
It does not hold the order. It decides what money moves later — what you can claim, what can be claimed from you, and what can be held back — and none of that changes after signature.
The loss on anything that burns, drops or floods before risk passes — at the carrier on f.o.b. origin, and on acceptance or delivery at destination, whichever is later, on f.o.b. destination
FAR 52.246-16(b)
When it is used
FAR 46.316: solicitations and contracts for (a) supplies, (b) services involving the furnishing of supplies, or (c) research and development, when a FIXED-PRICE contract is contemplated and the amount is expected to exceed the SAT ($350k since 2025-10-01). At or below the SAT the CO may insert it when agency procedures authorize. The clause is the contractual expression of the policy at FAR 46.505 — the two texts are word-for-word the same rules on title and risk of loss. Commercial buys allocate risk under 52.212-4(j), which is NOT the same rule (see practicalObligation).
Read closely
Title and risk move at different moments and the confusion between them is expensive: under (a) title passes on formal acceptance regardless of who is holding the goods. Under (c) supplies nonconforming enough to give a right of rejection sit outside (b) entirely — risk stays with you until cure or acceptance, wherever the material physically is. (d) is the one carve-out in your favor, for loss caused by the negligence of Government personnel. What this decides is what the cargo and property policy has to cover, and that is a question for before signature.
The 4 templates that name it, with the line
Source: acquisition.gov, FAR 52.246-16, FAR 46.316, FAR 46.505 and FAR 52.212-4(j); RFO Part 46 model text (verified 2026-08-05)
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.