Trade Associations and Standards Groups

Not all joint efforts among competitors are illegal. There are certain, very specific circumstances in which
Oracle may be able to cooperate with competitors, including as part of:

• Standards setting organizations (“SSOs”);

• Industry and trade associations; and
• Open source projects

Antitrust laws acknowledge that, if done properly, this type of collaboration can benefit consumers. The same
general antitrust rules apply to these scenarios, however, a meeting among various competitors creates
much greater opportunity and risk for violation of antitrust laws. For this reason, participation should always
be cleared through the appropriate legal channels:

• In the case SSOs there is a prescribed process as described at: https://standards.oraclecorp.com/

• Part of process is clearing participation by emailing: s
• Trade association and open source participation should be cleared within the relevant business units

There are certain bright-line topics that should never be discussed with competitors, including:

• Price, pricing policies, discounts, margins, or any other terms of sale;

• Bid, opportunity, or customer details;
• Strategy, sales, product, or marketing plans;
• Output or sales restrictions;
• Allocation of territories, markets, or customers;
• Input prices, or an individual company’s product costs

Trade Associations

Trade associations, when properly conducted, allow companies to discuss certain types of common issues
affecting their industry, or public policy. Such discussions must be very carefully conducted. Pricing and
other terms of sale, of course, are never an acceptable discussion topic.

Standards Groups

Standards groups are composed of industry competitors and consumers working together to build common
interfaces and/or data formats that allow different products to interact. In your individual capacity as an SSO
participant you should never:

• Agree to implement or adhere to a standard (or require the agreement of others). Participation in
the standard should be voluntary
• Exclude (or agree with others to exclude) stakeholders from the SSO or vote a competitor out of the
room

Takeaways

Always seek Legal Department guidance and approval before working with your competitors. And
remember, if discussions ever turn to price, cost, output, sales details, or supply terms: stop, excuse yourself
from the meeting, ask (if possible) that your departure be added to the minutes, and report what happened
to your Legal Department, immediately.