Bulletin - Lobbyist sets up fair-play group.

IT user and supplier groups have launched a programme to drive extortionate software and service charges out of the industry. Parliamentary lobby group Eurim this week held the first meeting of its Fair Dealing working party, designed to stamp out software 'stiffing'.

However, members predicted that contract disputes will become even more thorny if any millennium-compliant software falls over. Working party chairman Geoff Petherick said: 'There will be a good deal of (contract issues) at the end of the year because of year 2000. Contractually, it will be interesting.'

The working party gave itself a February deadline to produce recommendations.This is so that it can influence the contents of the next draft of the Cabinet Office report ecommerce@its.best.uk, due on 31 March. The report aims to encourage ebusiness and will tackle the cost of software and services.

Eurim general secretary Philip Virgo said that if the industry cannot regulate itself in that time, Eurim will consider recommending that the government introduce legislation, either through the Office of Fair Trading or by working with the European Commission.

The meeting set up sub-committees. One will finalise a code of conduct, a second will devise an alternative dispute resolution procedure, and a third will pool libraries of legal clauses so that end-users can develop a model contract.