Contract number: [ complete ]  Service contract conditions of December 2018  authority to ensure integrity, confidentiality and non-repudiation of information and the  availability of  e-PRIOR , which must be applied immediately. The parties agree that any e-document, including related attachments exchanged via  e-PRIOR :  The parties expressly waive any rights to contest the validity of such a document solely on the  grounds that communications between the parties occurred through  e-PRIOR or that the  document has been signed through  e-PRIOR . If a direct connection is established between the  parties’  back offices to allow electronic transfer of documents, the parties agree that an e- document, sent as mentioned in the  interface control document , qualifies as an  EDI message . If the e-document is dispatched through the  supplier portal , it is deemed to have been legally  issued or sent when the contractor (or leader in the case of a joint tender) is able to  successfully submit the e-document without any error messages. The generated PDF and  XML document for the e-document are considered as a proof of receipt by the contracting  authority. In the event that an e-document is dispatched using a direct connection established between  the parties’  back offices , the e-document is deemed to have been legally issued or sent when  its status is ‘received’ as defined in the  interface control document . When using the  supplier portal , the contractor (or leader in the case of a joint tender) can  download the PDF or XML message for each e-document for one year after submission. After  this period, copies of the e-documents are no longer available for automatic download from  the  supplier portal . The contractor submits a request for each person who needs to be assigned the role of ‘user’  in  e-PRIOR . These persons are identified by means of the European Communication  Authentication Service (ECAS) and authorised to access and perform actions in  e-PRIOR within the permissions of the user roles that the contracting authority has assigned to them.  User roles enabling these  e-PRIOR  authorised persons to sign legally binding documents such  as specific tenders or specific contracts are granted only upon submission of supporting  documents proving that the authorised person is empowered to act as a legal representative of  the contractor. II.6.1 The contracting authority is not liable for any damage or loss caused by the  contractor, including any damage or loss to third parties during or as a consequence of  performance of the contract . 17  LIABILITY  II.6. II.5.5 Authorised persons in e-PRIOR  (a) is considered as equivalent to a paper document; (b) is deemed to be the original of the document;  (c) is legally binding on the parties once an  e-PRIOR  authorised person has performed the  ‘sign’ action in  e-PRIOR  and has full legal effect; and  (d) constitutes evidence of the information contained in it and is admissible as evidence in  judicial proceedings. II.5.4 Validity and date of e-documents 