NAICS appeals

Each North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code identifies an industry and has a corresponding receipts-based or employee-based small business size standard. In a small business set-aside procurement, the contracting officer designates the applicable NAICS code, whose size standard the awardee must meet. Any offeror or other interested party adversely affected by the designated NAICS code may appeal that NAICS code to OHA. 13 C.F.R. 121.402 & 121.1102. 

You must file your NAICS appeal with OHA within 10 calendar days of the issuance of the solicitation or within 10 calendar days of the issuance of the amendment if the appeal relates to an amendment affecting the NAICS code, 13 C.F.R. 134.304(a)(3). OHA must receive your appeal by 5 p.m. ET on the 10th day.

We accept appeals by email at ohafilings@sba.gov or fax at 202-205-7059. Appeals sent to other email addresses and other fax numbers are not formal filings.

We also accept appeals via the Hearing and Appeals Submission Upload (HASU) Application. Please note that submitting an appeal using HASU is not required and HASU is only used to transmit the appeal to OHA. The submitter is responsible for serving a copy of the appeal to all appropriate parties. If you submitted your appeal using another method (email, fax, mail), you do not need to submit the appeal using HASU.

Submissions via HASU must be in PDF format and cannot be larger than 100 MB. Please call OHA at 202-401-8200 to confirm that we received your filing.

In addition to filing your appeal at OHA, you must send a copy of the appeal petition and all attachments to:

• The contracting officer who made the NAICS code designation, and
• The U.S. Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of General Counsel, Associate General Counsel for Procurement Law, 13 C.F.R. 134.305(c)

A certificate of service, 13 C.F.R. 134.204(d). The certificate of service shows that you sent a copy of your appeal to the people in the paragraph above. View a sample certificate of service for a NAICS appeal.

Your appeal should contain:

• The solicitation number,
• The contracting officer’s name and contact information,
• Your name and contact information, and
• Arguments as to why the designated NAICS code is incorrect and why another NAICS code is correct.

The regulations governing NAICS designations and appeals are available at 13 C.F.R. 121.402. OHA’s regulations are available at 13 C.F.R. 134.101-318. You may search OHA’s decisions interpreting these regulations in our database and cite these decisions in your appeal. See the online NAICS Manual, and the size standards for each NAICS code at 13 C.F.R. 121.201.

The OHA judge assigned to your appeal will issue a notice and order setting a date for the close of record. All arguments and supporting documents must be received at OHA by this date. If you do not receive a notice and order within a few days, call OHA at 202-401-8200. Once the record closes, the judge will decide the case and issue a written decision as soon as practicable.

Disclaimer: We provide this limited information to help small businesses file a NAICS Appeal. Complete information is available at 13 C.F.R. 121 and 13 C.F.R. 134.101-318.