Skip to content

Antitrust policy

The AFI project brings together contributors from multiple organizations, including potential business competitors, to advance a shared open standard. This creates the possibility — even without any intent — for communications and activities that could give rise to antitrust concerns.

This policy is intended to help AFI contributors avoid antitrust issues.

Prohibited discussions

Contributors MUST NOT discuss, in any AFI-related forum (issues, discussions, PRs, meetings, side channels tied to AFI activity):

  • Prices of any products or services, whether current or planned
  • Wages, salaries, or benefits offered to employees
  • Discounts, rebates, credit terms, or other commercial terms
  • Costs of production, distribution, or sales
  • Market share, sales territories, or customer allocation
  • Bids or bidding on specific contracts
  • Refusals to deal with, or boycotts of, any customer, supplier, or competitor
  • Any information that would be considered competitively sensitive by the antitrust laws applicable in your jurisdiction

Permitted discussions

Contributors MAY discuss:

  • Technical merits of AEP proposals
  • Interoperability requirements
  • Reference implementation quality
  • Governance and process changes
  • Conformance test coverage
  • Roadmap items in the abstract (features, not commercial terms)

Real-world guidance

  • When in doubt, don't. If a discussion feels like it's veering into commercial territory, redirect it or take it off-list.
  • If a competitor raises a prohibited topic in an AFI channel, clearly and immediately state that AFI is not the appropriate forum for that discussion, and post a summary to a public issue so the redirect is on record.
  • Assume your discussion is public. All AFI channels are public by default; treat side channels as potentially discoverable.

Reporting concerns

If you believe an AFI-related discussion has violated this policy, please contact the Core Maintainers privately via security@… (using the same address until a dedicated antitrust address is established) or by opening a GitHub Security Advisory.

This policy is guidance to help contributors avoid antitrust issues. It is not legal advice. Contributors should consult their own legal counsel if they have specific antitrust questions related to their participation in AFI.

Amendment

This policy is amended via the AEP process, with a minimum 30-day comment period given the policy's legal implications.