RFC 9680

Antitrust Guidelines for IETF Participants

📅 published October 2024, from ietf

RFC 9680: Antitrust Guidelines for IETF Participants 💖

okay bestie, this is an Informational RFC (so it's published for info, not as an Internet Standard 🎀). It came out in October 2024 under ISSN 2070-1721. The authors are J. Halpern, Ed. from Ericsson and J. Daley from IETF Administration LLC ✨. The title block doesn't list any RFCs it obsoletes or updates, so nothing gets replaced or changed here 🫶.

Abstract 🌸

this doc gives IETF participants education and guidance on staying on the right side of antitrust laws, plus tips on lowering antitrust risk when doing IETF stuff 💅

Status of This Memo 📜

this is not an Internet Standards Track spec, it's just published for info 🦋

this is an IETF product 💖 and it reflects the consensus of the IETF community. it got public review and was approved for publication by the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). not every doc the IESG approves is eligible for any level of Internet Standard, so check out Section 2 of RFC 7841 for that 🧚

for the latest status, any errata, or to send feedback, go to https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9680 🔍

Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. 🌈

this doc is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) as they stand on the publication date. please read these carefully, because they spell out your rights and restrictions for this doc 📖

if you pull Code Components out of this doc, they must include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions, and they come without warranty, as described in the Revised BSD License ⚖️

Table of Contents 🗺️

1.  Introduction
2.  Background
  2.1.  A Note About Terminology
  2.2.  Purpose of Antitrust or Competition Law
  2.3.  Overlapping Areas of Concern
3.  Existing IETF Antitrust Compliance Strategy
4.  Additional Recommendations
  4.1.  Topics to Avoid
  4.2.  Obtaining Independent Legal Advice
  4.3.  Escalating Antitrust-Related Concerns
5.  IANA Considerations
6.  Security Considerations
7.  References
  7.1.  Normative References
  7.2.  Informative References
Authors' Addresses

1. Introduction ✨

okay so standards work usually means competitors have to team up 🤝. that teamwork can raise questions about antitrust or competition law violations. this doc is here to help IETF participants lower their antitrust risks when they're doing IETF stuff. just to be clear, nothing in here changes any existing IETF policies 💜

2. Background 🎀

2.1. A Note About Terminology

"Antitrust law" and "competition law" mean the same thing in this doc 💅. "Antitrust" is the word used in the US and a few other places, and "competition law" is what Europe and lots of other jurisdictions say. the areas of law do have some nuanced differences, and sometimes people use the terms differently to show those differences, but here they're just synonyms 🌈

2.2. Purpose of Antitrust or Competition Law

the U.S. Department of Justice says "the goal of the antitrust laws is to protect economic freedom and opportunity by promoting free and fair competition in the marketplace. Competition in a free market benefits consumers through lower prices, better quality and greater choice. Competition provides businesses the opportunity to compete on price and quality, in an open market and on a level playing field, unhampered by anticompetitive restraints" [DOJ] 🛍️

the European Commission is on the same page 🇪🇺. it says the goal of its competition law rules is "to make EU markets work better, by ensuring that all companies compete equally and fairly on their merits" which "benefits consumers, businesses and the European economy as a whole" [EC] ✨

so basically, antitrust or competition laws exist to keep competition open, fair, and robust, which ultimately helps consumers 🫶

2.3. Overlapping Areas of Concern

the IETF has two overlapping areas of concern when it comes to antitrust compliance 👀

  • Most acutely, the IETF cannot have anyone who is officially representing the IETF, in any capacity, engage in anticompetitive behavior and create liability for the IETF. 🚫
  • Additionally, the IETF cannot be a forum where participants engage in anticompetitive behavior, even if direct liability for that behavior falls on those participants and not the IETF, to avoid reputational harm to the IETF. 😭

3. Existing IETF Antitrust Compliance Strategy 🧩

following the BCPs and the other relevant policies that write down the IETF's established rules and norms helps with antitrust compliance 💖. the IETF's structure and processes are built to reduce antitrust risks, so you're already protected by just following them 🛡️. as a reminder, participants are required to follow these policies:

  • The Internet Standards Process as described in BCP 9 [BCP9], which is designed to "provide a fair, open, and objective basis for developing, evaluating, and adopting Internet Standards" (RFC 2026) and provides robust procedural rules, including an appeals process. ⚖️
  • The Working Group Guidelines and Procedures described in BCP 25 [BCP25], which emphasize requirements for "open and fair participation and for thorough consideration of technical alternatives" (RFC 2418) and describe the IETF's consensus-based decision-making processes. 🗳️
  • The IETF framework that participants engage in their individual capacity, not as company representatives (see [BCP9] and [LLC]), and "use their best engineering judgment to find the best solution for the whole Internet, not just the best solution for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user," as described in RFC 7154 [BCP54]. 🧠
  • The IETF's intellectual property rights policies as set forth in BCP 78 [BCP78] and BCP 79 [BCP79]. These policies are carefully designed to "benefit the Internet community and the public at large, while respecting the legitimate rights of others" (RFC 8179). 💡
  • The established conflict of interest policies, such as the IESG Conflict of Interest Policy (https://www.ietf.org/about/groups/iesg/iesg-coi-policy/), the IAB Conflict of Interest Policy (https://www.iab.org/about/conflict-of-interest-policy/), or the IETF LLC Conflict of Interest Policy (https://www.ietf.org/administration/policies-procedures/conflict-interest/), if and when applicable. 🎯

4. Additional Recommendations 🍓

the biggest recommendation is to carefully follow every applicable IETF policy from Section 3 🥇

this section covers more info about:

  • certain topics that are generally inappropriate for discussion in a standards-setting environment,
  • the importance of participants obtaining independent legal advice, as appropriate, and
  • paths to escalate antitrust-related concerns. 🪜

4.1. Topics to Avoid 🙈

even though IETF participants are expected to show up as individuals, what they do could still be seen as representing their employer, whatever their role is 👔. so participants should know that some topics are generally inappropriate in a standards-setting space where people from competitors to their employer are likely to be in the room 🚨. those topics include:

  • discussion about product pricing or profit margins among potential competitors,
  • the details of business relationships between specific vendors and customers,
  • details about the supply chains of specific companies,
  • discussions about market opportunities for specific companies, and
  • employee compensation or benefits among potentially competitive employers. 💸

not every chat about these topics is automatically an antitrust violation, and the analysis changes depending on each participant's position 🤷‍♀️. still, prudence says avoiding these specific topics in the collaborative IETF process is the best way to lower antitrust risks for the IETF and its participants 🫧

antitrust law goes beyond these topics though 👀. for example, any behavior that amounts to an agreement to restrain marketplace competition, or that facilitates monopolization of particular markets, raises potential antitrust risks. participants are responsible for making sure their conduct doesn't violate any antitrust laws or regulations 💀

✨ Part 1 ends here, more to come! ✨

7.1. Normative References 💖

[BCP9] Best Current Practice 9, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp9>. Okay so at the time of writing, this BCP is made up of these bestie-approved documents: 🌸

Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process -- Revision
3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, DOI 10.17487/RFC2026, October 1996,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2026>.

Dusseault, L. and R. Sparks, "Guidance on Interoperation
and Implementation Reports for Advancement to Draft
Standard", BCP 9, RFC 5657, DOI 10.17487/RFC5657,
September 2009, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5657>.

Housley, R., Crocker, D., and E. Burger, "Reducing the
Standards Track to Two Maturity Levels", BCP 9, RFC 6410,
DOI 10.17487/RFC6410, October 2011,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6410>.

Resnick, P., "Retirement of the "Internet Official
Protocol Standards" Summary Document", BCP 9, RFC 7100,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7100, December 2013,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7100>.

Kolkman, O., Bradner, S., and S. Turner, "Characterization
of Proposed Standards", BCP 9, RFC 7127,
DOI 10.17487/RFC7127, January 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7127>.

Dawkins, S., "Increasing the Number of Area Directors in
an IETF Area", BCP 9, RFC 7475, DOI 10.17487/RFC7475,
March 2015, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7475>.

Halpern, J., Ed. and E. Rescorla, Ed., "IETF Stream
Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus", BCP 9, RFC 8789,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8789, June 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8789>.

Rosen, B., "Responsibility Change for the RFC Series",
BCP 9, RFC 9282, DOI 10.17487/RFC9282, June 2022,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9282>.

[BCP25] Best Current Practice 25, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp25>. This one's giving process and conduct vibes, and it's made of:

Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and
Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, DOI 10.17487/RFC2418,
September 1998, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2418>.

Wasserman, M., "Updates to RFC 2418 Regarding the
Management of IETF Mailing Lists", BCP 25, RFC 3934,
DOI 10.17487/RFC3934, October 2004,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc3934>.

Resnick, P. and A. Farrel, "IETF Anti-Harassment
Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 7776, DOI 10.17487/RFC7776, March
2016, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7776>.

Resnick, P. and A. Farrel, "Update to the IETF Anti-
Harassment Procedures for the Replacement of the IETF
Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC) with the IETF
Administration LLC", BCP 25, RFC 8716,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8716, February 2020,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8716>.

[BCP54] Best Current Practice 54, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp54>. Right now this BCP is just one doc, and it's the big one for conduct: 👑

Moonesamy, S., Ed., "IETF Guidelines for Conduct", BCP 54,
RFC 7154, DOI 10.17487/RFC7154, March 2014,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc7154>.

[BCP78] Best Current Practice 78, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp78>. Rights stuff, but make it cute 🎀. At the time of writing, it's:

Bradner, S., Ed. and J. Contreras, Ed., "Rights
Contributors Provide to the IETF Trust", BCP 78, RFC 5378,
DOI 10.17487/RFC5378, November 2008,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5378>.

[BCP79] Best Current Practice 79, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/bcp79>. Intellectual property in IETF technology, and at the time of writing this BCP is:

Bradner, S. and J. Contreras, "Intellectual Property
Rights in IETF Technology", BCP 79, RFC 8179,
DOI 10.17487/RFC8179, May 2017,
<https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc8179>.

7.2. Informative References 🦋

These are the extra reading links that give helpful context but aren't required to implement anything. Bookmark them, bestie 📚

[DOJ] U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, "Mission", <https://www.justice.gov/atr/mission>. The US antitrust folks and their whole mission statement. 🧚

[EC] European Commission, "Competition", <https://commission.europa.eu/about-european-commission/departments-and-executive-agencies/competition_en>. The EU's competition page, which is also giving main character energy 💅

[LLC] IETF Administration LLC, "IETF Administration LLC Statement on Competition Law Issues", 28 July 2020, <https://www.ietf.org/blog/ietf-llc-statement-competition-law-issues/>. The LLC's own statement on competition law, and it's a must-read 💜

[Whistleblower] IETF Administration LLC, "IETF LLC Whistleblower Policy", <https://www.ietf.org/administration/policies-procedures/whistleblower/>. The policy for speaking up if something's not right 🫶

Authors' Addresses ✨

Here are the lovely people who wrote this doc, with their contact details. Slide into their emails if you have questions 💌

Joel M. Halpern (editor)
Ericsson
P.O. Box 6049
Leesburg, VA 20178
United States of America
Email: joel.halpern@ericsson.com


Jay Daley
IETF Administration LLC
1000 N. West Street, Suite 1200
Wilmington, DE 19801
United States of America
Email: jay@staff.ietf.org
📦 where this page comes from