Europol Public Information  7. A delay in the starting day for the performance of the Services caused by an external factor (e.g.  third party) may only be invoked by the  Contractor  towards Europol if the external factor was not in  any way caused by an error, omission action, inaction, etc. of the  Contractor  itself.  8. e-System: The  Contractor gives its consent for the introduction during the duration of this  Framework Contract  of an e-System designed to allow electronic implementation of the  Framework  Contact , including ordering and invoicing. The application may extend electronic procurement best  practice to other areas of contract implementation. It is recognised by both parties that the  introduction of such mechanisms implies the need to modify certain implementation and payment  provisions of the  Framework Contact  and both parties shall co-operate in good faith and at no  additional cost to achieve this. 1. The maximum expenditure under this  Framework Contract for the entire period of applicability  established in accordance with Article I-3 (“Duration”) shall be EUR 10,000,000.00 (euro ten million)  excl. VAT. No guaranteed minimum expenditure under this  Framework Contract is offered by  Europol.  2. The price(s) for goods and/or services under this  Framework Contract shall be as listed in the  Contractor’s  Tender at Annex II. Price(s) shall be expressed in EURO.  3. Price(s) shall be fixed and not subject to revision for implementation of the  Framework Contract during the first year of duration of the  Framework Contract . 4. Catalogue of Price: Where the Catalogue of Price is updated, the price of additional items shall be  determined as specified in Section 7.5 of the Technical Specifications (Annex I). 5. If the Contractor applies an uplift, the uplifts shall be fixed for the entire duration of the  Framework  Contract (i.e., including any renewal thereof), unless lower uplifts are otherwise possible. The  Contractor  shall adhere to the fullest extent possible to the principle of reducing uplifts. 6. If the  Contractor  offers its own  Optional Services , the prices for such  Optional Services  shall be as  listed in  Contractor’s  Tender at Annex II and be revised in accordance with Article I-5.3.  Optional  Services shall comply with the requirements specified in Annex I (“Technical Specifications”) and  Article I-13. a) The scope of the goods provided by the Contractor is taken into consideration; Price(s) are subject to revision by means of annual indexation in accordance with the provisions of  the Article II –7 (“Price Revision”).  Europol may undertake the  Benchmarking  of the levels and the charges of the goods provided under  this Framework Contract by comparison with similar (by type and quality) goods provided by  outsourcing vendors and/or in-house suppliers. In order to guarantee that a valid comparison is made, it shall be ensured that: 7. Benchmarking :  Page 9 of 79  Article I-5  Contract Price  Europol’s initials:  Contractor’s initials: 