The KDE community is deeply concerned by the wrong notion contained in a recent complaint to the European Commission. The Fairsearch initiative claims that "distribution of Android at below-cost" could constitute anti-competitive behaviour or predatory pricing. Mirko Böhm produced a response (PDF) for the KDE Community.

In part, the Fairsearch complaint is an attempt to reduce the strong competition of Free Software platforms with proprietary offerings. KDE and other free software projects would be adversely affected by a misinformed decision about Android. The Internet itself (a basis for the Fairsearch complaint) is largely a product of Free Software. The KDE Community in one of the largest Free Software communities in the world, a global collaboration of companies and individuals building a free platform and creating programs in an openly governed development process.

The predatory pricing claims against Free Software platforms in the complaint to the European Commission are wrong in substance and hurtful to collaborative development and open innovation. Volunteer-driven Free Software communities rely on regulators to protect open innovation against the vested interests of strong proprietary players.

Members of the KDE Community encourage the European Commission to understand that Free Software truly fosters innovation and increases competition. At stake is the liberty of our contributors and those of other communities to collaboratively create and distribute software as a common good.