Switzerland Under Fire in Red Hat vs. Microsoft Face-off

Switzerland, a country traditionally associated with neutrality, has found itself under attack for its Microsoft software soft spot. Leading the assault is Red Hat, followed by 17 other companies, in a move designed to challenge what the open-source vendor referred to as the Microsoft lock-in. At stake is a 14 million Swiss Francs ($12.8 million) per year contract awarded directly to Microsoft by the Swiss Federal Bureau for Building and Logistics (BBL). Via a brief filed the past week with Swiss Federal Administration Court, the group of companies led by Red Hat is attempting to get the court to overturn the agency decisions. At the same time, the Linux vendor is asking the Swiss governmental agency to hold a public bidding process taking into consideration offers from companies beyond Microsoft.

“The three-year contract (...) [involves] standardized workstations, including applications, maintenance, and support. There was no public bidding process. The Swiss agency justified this no-bid procedure on the ground that there was no sufficient alternative to the Microsoft products,” a member of the Red Hat legal team stated.

Microsoft has not offered an official comment on the matter. In the brief to reverse the Swiss government contract Red Hat emphasized that a public biding process was necessary for open-source and additional third-party non-Microsoft software products to get fair consideration. The Linux vendor underlined the fact that there were already Swiss governmental agencies, including Kanton Solothurn, the City of Zurich, the Federal Agency for Computer Sciences and Telecommunications (BIT), the Federal Institute for Intellectual Property (IGE), that have opted to use Red Hat instead of Microsoft offerings.

“The challenge raises important issues of openness in government and of a level playing field for open source and other competitors of Microsoft. Red Hat is seeking a public bidding process that allows for consideration of the technical and commercial advantages of open source software products,” the member of the Red Hat legal team added.