According to Gizmodo, Google last week filed a suit that accuses the government of failing to give Google Apps a fair overview when it was searching for a company to head its new web-based documents system.

 

According to the documents, Google never had a chance to win the hosting rights for the Department of Interior's (DOI) document system because the DOI required the winning system to be part of Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite.

 

Google called this an “arbitrary and capricious” requirement. In a letter sent to the department earlier this year, Google stated, “we believe these Microsoft-based requirements would violate the Competition in Contracting Act because they bear no rational relationship to the DOI's needs, are not written to enhance the competition or innovation, and unduly restrict competition.”

 

The alleged favouritism towards Microsoft is a very serious accusation, given that Google and Microsoft are two world giants in a number of fields, including the new battle over cloud computing. From what we can understand, it seems Google has a solid case on its hands, and it will be very interesting to see the implications for the companies involved as it progresses.  

 

Google has also been involved in another dispute with a national government, that of the People’s Republic of China. The search giant threatened to pull out of the country amid reports of attacks against its sites as well as humanitarian violations.