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Google Sues U.S. Government Agency Over Microsoft Favoritism

by Amar Toor on November 2, 2010 at 02:15 PM

google on the scales
The U.S. Department of the Interior is currently looking for a company to help construct a new e-mail and collaboration product. According to Google, though, the competition for the lucrative contract isn't exactly fair -- and the company is now going to federal court to prove its point.

In a suit filed Friday in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, the search engine giant alleged that the agency's call for a new e-mail product unfairly excluded Google from eligibility, since the contract explicitly states that the solution must be part of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. This stipulation, according to Google, violates the Competition in Contracting Act, since it automatically eliminates Google Apps from consideration. As the Wall Street Journal explains, the Department of the Interior is looking for a company to come up with a new product to replace its 13 messaging platforms, and is willing to pay $59 million over five years for the company's services. The agency says it's completely willing to hold an open competition, but insists that it's "standardized" on Microsoft's software, which it considers to be comparatively more secure.

The lawsuit against the Department also marks an unexpected turn of events between the government and Google, whose acquisitions and privacy policies have been the subjects of federal probes. Now, the search engine has clearly turned the tables on the government -- though some speculate that its real target is Microsoft, whose Office software offers stiff competition to Google's online Apps suite. "Google rarely goes on the offensive in court," said Eric Goldman, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law. "It's suing the Department of the Interior as a proxy in its battle against Microsoft."

Tags: apps, competition, contract, court, DepartmentOfTheInterior, google, lawsuit, microsoft, money, top

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