Antitrust Code of Conduct

This page provides the general rules and governance, the anti-competitive conduct and exchange of Information for the digital.auto initiative.

Preamble

digital.auto is an open, vendor-neutral and product-agnostic, non-profit initiative, focusing on the industry adoption of the Software-defined Vehicle (SdV). SdV is a generic enabler of new digital vehicle services applications. digital.auto aims to support the mobility industry to leverage the full potential of this new enabling technology. This Antitrust Code of Conduct provides rules for the collaboration within digital.auto in more detail.

General Rules and Governance

The following summarizes digital.auto´s general antitrust rules and governance policies:

digital.auto is not aimed at providing a platform for any kind of conduct resulting in restricting or distorting competition in any way.
digital.auto participants are committed to comply with all applicable antitrust and competition laws and regulations and therefore to strictly adhere to these laws and regulations. Each digital.auto participant acknowledges that non-compliance may result in exclusion of the respective participant from the digital.auto.
The participation in digital.auto is open to all industrial companies, academic institutions and other research institutions interested in.
All policies and guidelines published by digital.auto are recommendations. The digital.auto participants remain free to participate in alternative initiatives or to develop products that do not comply with the digital.auto policies and guidelines.
In the event that any activities by digital.auto could lead to an industrial standard involving intellectual property rights, the digital.auto participants shall agree on a clear and balanced IPR-Policy separately.
digital.auto participants shall inform their employees and representatives participating in digital.auto about this Antitrust Code of Conduct. Each digital.auto participant shall assure that its representatives are duly sensitized to antitrust issues and that they understand any associated risks and therefore conduct their participation in digital.auto in compliance with antitrust and competition laws and regulations.
A detailed agenda shall be established and circulated prior to any digital.auto meetings (in person or over the phone). Any antitrust / competition law concerns with respect to topics on the agenda, shall be addressed to digital.auto and/or the participant in charge of organizing the respective meeting. If the concerns may not be resolved prior to the meeting, the respective agenda topic shall be taken from the agenda until compliance with antitrust /competition laws is established. digital.auto participants shall hold their meetings in strict accordance with the agenda; deviations should be mirrored in the meeting minutes. Minutes reflecting the essence of the discussions shall be drawn-up for each meeting and circulated to the digital.auto participants in due course for approval.
digital.auto participants shall immediately and openly raise their concerns if certain discussions may, in their view, entail a risk of non-compliance with antitrust and/or competition laws and regulations. Such concerns shall be reflected in the meeting minutes. If the concerns may not be resolved in the meeting, the topic shall be postponed until compliance with antitrust /competition laws is established.
In case of doubt about compliance of any digital.auto matter with antitrust / competition laws, the digital.auto participants shall involve their respective legal department for advice and assistance.

Anti-competitive Conduct and Exchange of Information

Certain conduct is considered inherently harmful to competition, and applicable antitrust and competition laws and regulations regularly prohibit such conduct. Such conduct includes agreements or concerted practices between competitors and even the exchange of information with respect to:

Development, market strategy and intended market entries regarding new products in the field of SdV (unless already publicly known)
Planned internal R&D projects in the field of SdV
All price related information (e.g. purchase, sales and resale prices including list prices, price components, price calculation, pricing policy, price changes)
Capacities and quotas (e.g. production quotas, restriction on production, capacity shortages)
Sales policy, sales territories, customers (e.g. customer lists, current orders and invitations to order or requests for quotation, customer and market sharing, market exits, boycotts)
Terms and conditions agreed with customers/suppliers (e.g. warranty)
Information related to personnel recruitment of experts for SdV or other experts (e.g. salary, salary components, salary ranges, bonuses, monetary incentives or no poach agreements)

The digital.auto participants will neither encourage, nor facilitate or favor in any way such conduct or any communication of sensitive, confidential and strategic business information among digital.auto participants.