The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit under the False Claims Act against software maker Oracle, alleging the company defrauded the government on a General Services Administration contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Justice claims Oracle failed to notify GSA when it offered discounts to commercial customers; federal customers, as a result, got inferior deals. Customers on the GSA schedules are required by law to receive discounts equal to or greater than firms' "most favored" customers.

"We take seriously allegations that a government contractor has dealt dishonestly with the United States," said Tony West, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil division, in a press release issued Thursday. "When contractors misrepresent their business practices to the government, taxpayers suffer."

Oracle's contract was in effect from 1998 to 2006. Media reports in June said that the company allegedly overcharged the federal government tens of millions of dollars during that time. A Justice Department spokesman said today that no dollar amount was available.

Paul Frascella, formerly Oracle's senior director of contract services, initially filed a whistleblower suit against the company in 2007 under the False Claims Act.

If Justice is successful in its suit, the government is entitled to receive three times the damages that resulted from Oracle's actions, as well as a penalty of up to $11,000 per claim.

The department's National Procurement Fraud Task Force investigated the case.