BioneX, LLC (B-423630)

You should not care.

Category: AI, HUBZone Technical evaluation, timeliness

Date: 25 July 2025

URL: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-423630

BioneX, LLC, a HUBZone small business of South Fulton, Tennessee, protested the Air Force’s award under RFQ No. FA568225Q8004 for certified strength and conditioning specialist services at Aviano Air Base, Italy, to BFrench Consulting, LLC. BioneX alleged the agency failed to apply the HUBZone price evaluation preference under FAR 52.219-4 to its quotation. Significantly, GAO addressed BioneX’s reliance on nonexistent or misapplied legal citations—many apparently produced by AI—reminding parties of their duty to accuracy in protest filings.

GAO found FAR 52.219-4 was not included in the solicitation, so the agency could not be compelled to apply the HUBZone price evaluation preference. The protester’s claim that the clause operates “by default” was unsupported by regulation or precedent. Had BioneX wanted the clause included, it was required to challenge the solicitation prior to the quote deadline per GAO’s timeliness rules.

GAO admonished the protester for submitting citations to nonexistent or inapplicable legal authorities, noting the integrity of its process depends on accurate representation of law and fact.

The protest was dismissed. The main lesson for practitioners is to challenge missing solicitation provisions before the deadline and to ensure cited authorities are real and applicable, especially as reliance on AI-generated content increases.

Digest

Protest alleging that agency failed to apply a historically underutilized business zone price evaluation preference to the protester’s quotation is dismissed where the solicitation failed to establish such a preferential evaluation scheme.