US and EU regulatory competition in ICT standardization law & policy

Abstract

Regulatory competition between the US and EU influences the development of the standards that define global ICT networks. Traditional standard-setting organizations that once developed those standards have been marginalized by the rapid pace of innovation in ICT, and informal standard-setting organizations have rushed into the breach. US policy favors informal standard-setting processes and often requires government interests to be subordinated to market outcomes, while EU policy favors formal standard-setting processes and often requires market outcomes to be subordinated to political mandates. In the absence of a universally recognized, formal multilateral system to oversee the development of standards for global ICT networks, the market-oriented, decentralized approach taken by the US may continue to have more impact on future ICT standards than the EU approach. However, a streamlined, reinvigorated version of the EU approach might be more effective than the US approach in promoting the public interest in interoperability against private interests in proprietary technologies and in reducing the risk of market fragmentation in global ICT networks. Regulatory competition among all types of standards authorities is likely to continue for the foreseeable future because multilateral efforts to harmonize standards law and policy will have difficulty succeeding in an environment where standards policy remains closely tied to national or regional cultural values.