US Sues Oracle Over Alleged Overcharging

CWmike writes "Oracle is being sued by the US government for allegedly overcharging it by millions of dollars, according to documents on file in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The US General Services Administration's Schedules are supposed to provide discounts that are as good as or better than that given to the vendor's most favored customers, the complaint states. However, Oracle employee Paul Frascella, who joins the government's action, learned that Oracle was finding ways around the GSA restrictions in order to give commercial customers even deeper discounts, according to the complaints. In one alleged practice Oracle was said to be 'selling to a reseller at a deep discount ... and having the reseller sell the product to the end user at a price below the written maximum allowable discounts,' the complaint states. Overall, Oracle's actions cost US taxpayers 'tens of millions of dollars,' it adds."

Comments

Re:Tens of Millions?

[moosesocks]

You're correct. Politicians are responsible for the allocation of the government's budget, the revenue from which is largely derived from taxes.

Your point?

Re:Wait a minute

[mwvdlee]

Who says the US government is a preferred customer? They just demand to be treated as a preferred customer.

The reason why they think they have the right to make such demands is beyond me though.

Re:Right...

[commodore64_love]

Not the same thing. Oracle doesn't have to offer a company "the lowest price". Oracle is free to charge XYZ Company twice as much as ABC Company, and XYZ can not sue Oracle because of it. It's just the way it is. But government can because government is not bound by contractual obligations. The paper means nothing.

BTW you're right. I don't know how you can study the last 3000 years of history, and conclude government is not evil. More citizens have been killed by their OWN government, than by foreign invasion, even inside Democracies.