Amazon Seeking to Block Microsoft's Deal With U.S. Government
Amazon.com Inc. will ask a judge to temporarily block Microsoft from performing any substantial work on a $10 billion Pentagon cloud contract until its lawsuit challenging its validity resolved.
In a filing in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington Monday, the two companies set out a proposed schedule to deal with the litigation, including Amazon’s plan to seek the court order.
Amazon Web Services “intends to file a motion for temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction to prevent the issuance of substantive task orders under the contract, which the United States has previously advised AWS and the Court will begin on February 11,” the company said in the filing.
Microsoft plans to ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
The requests for the dismissal and for the temporary restraining order, or a preliminary injunction, are to be filed by Jan. 24. The companies asked the judge to rule on Amazon’s request on Feb. 11.
Amazon claims it lost the Pentagon cloud contract because of political interference by President Donald Trump.
Amazon filed the lawsuit under seal in November to formally protest its loss of the Pentagon’s Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or JEDI, cloud contract.