This chapter provides a detailed systematic overview of the operational rules of seven prominent standards development organizations, each having a different institutional background and developing different types of ICT standards, namely: ITU; ETSI; 3GPP; IEEE; IETF; W3C; and Bluetooth SIG. Building on the previous chapter, it examines these organizations’ standards development procedures, which it divides into three stages: proposal of standardization projects, rules on contributing and voting at the meetings of technical committees, and approval of standards. It then offers comparative observations to the extent that the different institutional settings of these organizations allow.

This chapter reveals experiences of individuals who have been involved in ICT standardization, mostly experts from leading private companies, with the processes of different standards development organizations (SDOs), discussing such aspects as practical relevance of IPR policies, dispute resolution by the organizations’ governance bodies, and the differences between drafting organizational policies and drafting standards. In particular, this chapter seeks to understand from a practical viewpoint, how compliance with due process requirements by SDOs relates to the effectiveness of their standards and, building on these findings, reveal the limits of epistemic legitimacy in ICT standardization as a regulatory tool. The main conclusion from this qualitative empirical research is that, according to the experts, the ICT standardization ecosystem functions well and does not need any interference from the public sector. As such, while the findings of this chapter take a form of anecdotal evidence, they increase our understanding of current practices in ICT standardization, and offer food for thought for both public and private regulators with respect to the design and scrutiny of standardization processes.

This chapter provides a detailed systematic overview of the operational rules of seven prominent standards development organizations, each having a different institutional background and developing different types of ICT standards, namely: ITU, ETSI, 3GPP, IEEE, IETF, W3C, and Bluetooth SIG. It examines these bodies’ governance rules, such as their membership admissions, composition of decision-making bodies, policy-making processes, mechanisms for appeal and review of their officers’ decisions, and their Intellectual Property Rights policies and offers comparative observations to the extent that the different institutional settings of these organizations allow.

This chapter analyses the extent to which the legal instruments discussed in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 apply to the examined SDOs. It also evaluates these organizations’ rules and procedures against the due process requirements of the applicable regulatory frameworks discussed in Chapter 6. While acknowledging the heterogeneity of the organizations’ operational frameworks, this chapter also emphasizes that their organizational rules – while designed in self-regulatory processes – should yet be considered within the legal constraints of the applicable regulatory frameworks. Indeed, SDOs enjoy a wide discretion not only to implement the due process requirements, but also to determine what these requirements mean, defining such terms as “consensus,” “openness,” and “balance” in their procedural rules. While observing that there are different ways to implement due process principles into the organizations’ procedures, this chapter notes that the level of procedural guarantees offered during the different stages of decision-making differs per organization, but is often insufficient from the perspective of legitimacy.