Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 113 Part 1.djvu/211

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PUBLIC LAW 106-37^JULY 20, 1999 113 STAT. 187 urges the parties to enter into voluntary, nonbinding mediation rather than Utigation. (b) PURPOSES.— Based upon the power of the Congress under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution of the United States, the purposes of this Act are— (1) to establish uniform legal standsirds that give all businesses and users of technology products reasonable incentives to solve year 2000 computer date-change problems before they develop; (2) to encourage continued remediation and testing efforts to solve such problems by providers, suppliers, customers, and other contracting partners; (3) to encourage private and public parties alike to resolve disputes relating to year 2000 computer date-change problems by alternative dispute mechanisms in order to avoid costly and time-consimiing litigation, to initiate those mechanisms as early as possible, and to encourage the prompt identification and correction of such problems; and (4) to lessen the burdens on interstate commerce by discouraging insubstantial lawsuits while preserving the ability of individuals and businesses that have suffered real injury to obtain complete relief. SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 15 USC 6602. In this Act: (1) Y2K ACTION.— The term "Y2K action"— (A) means a civil action commenced in any Federal or State court, or an agency board of contract appeal proceeding, in which the plaintiff's alleged harm or injury arises from or is related to Ein actual or potential Y2K failure, or a claim or defense arises from or is related to an actual or potential Y2K failure; (B) includes a civil action commenced in any Federal or State court by a government entity when acting in a commercial or contracting capacity; but (C) does not include an action brought by a government entity acting in a regulatory, supervisory, or enforcement capacity. (2) Y2K FAILURE.— The term 'Y2K failure" means failure by any device or system (including any computer system and any microchip or integrated circuit embedded in another device or product), or any software, firmware, or other set or collection of processing instructions to process, to calculate, to compare, to sequence, to display, to store, to transmit, or to receive year-2000 date-related data, including failures— (A) to deal with or account for transitions or comparisons from, into, and between the years 1999 and 2000 accurately; (B) to recognize or accurately to process any specific date in 1999, 2000, or 2001; or (C) accurately to account for the year 2000's status as a leap year, including recognition and processing of the correct date on February 29, 2000. (3) GOVERNMENT ENTITY.— The term "government entity" means an agency, instrumentality, or other entity of Federal, State, or loced government (including multijurisdictioned agencies, instnunentalities, and entities).