When the standardization system starts to falter

A glance at the white sheet of paper makes it very clear: standards and norms are an important building block of economic success. What has become world-famous as the DIN A4 format or VDE 0100 is the result of a system that could come under considerable pressure in the future. The reason for this is a ruling by the European Court of Justice, according to which certain standards should be freely accessible - even on the Internet. This at first glance honorable desire for free information has only one flaw: it deprives the central independent rule-makers of their economic basis, so that they can no longer fulfill their task. What is ostensibly supposed to be a benefit for the economy and society is therefore likely to quickly become a boomerang. This is because the rule-setters do not work pro domo, but orchestrate and support the standardization process - a cornerstone of the competitiveness of the German/European economic system and, moreover, a core element of consumer protection.

Standards are worth their weight in gold

Standards cost money: In Germany, the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) and the German Commission for Electrical, Electronic & Information Technologies (VDE DKE) are responsible for the development of (technical) standards. As neutral platforms, they organize the voluntary process of developing standards, which is supported by a large number of stakeholders from industry, science and civil society. In order to finance this work, the standards are made available for a fee. The costs are in the lower 2-digit to mid 3-digit euro range. Probably a purchase, but not a real challenge even for small companies, especially as new standards do not have to be observed and therefore purchased every week. In any case, I am not aware of any case where a company has got into financial difficulties due to the purchase of a standard. Conversely, standards have helped countless times to prevent companies from getting into legal and financial difficulties: The quality promise of norms and standards creates trust, provides security and facilitates access to global markets. Products that comply with international standards are easier to sell in many countries, which significantly expands export opportunities. Harmonized European standards apply uniformly to the entire EU and thus to the world's largest single market. Norms and standards promote innovation by creating a common basis on which new technologies and processes can be built. They also facilitate interoperability between different systems, which supports the development of new products and services.

Systemic rivals also in norms and standards

Norms and standards are therefore indispensable for a competitive economy. Those who set standards and norms determine the design of technologies to a very large extent and can even achieve technological hegemony in individual cases. For example, norms and standards in telecommunications could act as a geopolitical instrument, as there are only a handful of network suppliers worldwide. These international standardization processes take place in the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), among others. And it is no wonder that China has been very active in the international standardization committees for several years in order to anchor "its" norms and standards worldwide.

Friendly fire

Not everyone agrees that standards cost money. US activist and founder of the organization Public.Resource.Org Inc, Carl Malamud, concluded that standards could be much more useful if they were available for free on the Internet. Mr. Malamud has followed up his words with action on several occasions by purchasing various standards and then posting them online, which has led to copyright infringement lawsuits, including by DIN. Public.Resource.Org Inc. has also challenged a decision by the European Commission to deny it free access to four harmonized European standards. As the complaint was rejected, the organization appealed to the European Court of Justice.

If harmonized European standards were to be in the public domain in the future, the privately organized standardization bodies such as DIN and VDE DKE would be deprived of the opportunity to finance their essential work in the standardization process through sales and license fees. However, this would deprive the national standardization system of most of its business basis and cause the standardization system to falter. As a result, Germany and Europe would have even less to counter the growing Chinese involvement. And the implementation of international and European standards in German standards would also not be guaranteed; much to the detriment - and this is the highly critical aspect - of small and medium-sized companies in particular.

The price of freedom

Of course, against the background of "free access" initiatives and the daily experience with pay walls, it sounds tempting to make the results of intensive and highly qualified standardization processes publicly accessible free of charge. There is a differentiated legal debate as to whether standards comply with the law if they are assigned to European laws as an annex or reference (New Approach or New Legislative Framework). Since laws must always be freely accessible, they must also be standards according to this interpretation. German courts did not see it that way until now. Now it was up to the ECJ. In her Opinion, Advocate General Laila Medina addressed the question of whether harmonized European standards must be available free of charge, as the principle of transparency and the right to free access to documents from EU institutions apply to them. Her conclusion was: "In the light of the foregoing, the judgment under appeal must be set aside, the contested decision annulled and the Commission ordered to grant the appellants access to the four harmonized European standards requested."

What is not included in this consideration is the question of how the existing standardization system in Germany and Europe can still be maintained and how equality with other countries in the definition of international norms and standards can be maintained. To date, neither the legal experts nor the European Commission have a sufficient answer to this question and - in my opinion - under the pressure of the new government constellation in Brussels following the elections, there is no great ambition to find one. In its ruling of 5 March 2024, the ECJ determined that EU citizens have a right to free access to certain harmonized European standards if these standards define specific safety requirements for products or services.

Just a spectre?

The claim formulated by Carl Malamud has been proved right. However, it is not to be expected that this will be the end of the case. Rather, it is to be feared that there will be similar lawsuits that could lead to an ever-increasing release of standards - up to the point where the entire catalog of standards is released for free and unrestricted access.

Freedom (of information) is a valuable asset. However, its protection must not lead to an axe being laid to an important pillar of competitiveness. China is probably laughing up its sleeve twice over: Firstly, at the further, entirely home-made weakening of European competition and, in the long term, at the weakening of freedom, which comes under particular pressure in times of economic crisis, as can currently be observed. This was hardly what the forward-looking authors of the European Standardization Strategy had in mind when they wrote in 2022: "Europe's competitiveness and technological sovereignty, the ability to reduce dependencies and the protection of EU values, as well as our social and environmental ambitions, will depend on how successfully standardization is pursued by European players at international level."

How right they were!

#DKE #DIN #VDE #standards