Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Hans-W. Micklitz
is less technical and more political than standardisation of products. That is why
standardisation of services and legislative regulation of services are closely
intertwined.
It is indispensible to get to know the existing EC directives and regulations on
services, not only in the field of services covered by Directive 2006/123/EC, but
all sorts of services where the European legislator has intervened in the last
decades. These sector-specific rules provide a deep insight into the choice of
instruments, the role and function of old and new regulators and old and new
instruments. However, the sector-specific rules contain an additional message
which is addressed to standardisers: voluntary standards have an increasing
role to play in order to complement the already existing European regulatory
frame. The Service Directive and the envisaged revision of the New Approach
to technical harmonisation and standards 17 fit all too well into such a picture.
The European Commission wants Standards Bodies to become key players in
particular in areas where the European regulatory net is less tight. The
stocktaking of existing national 18 , European and international consumer-related
technical standards of services demonstrates that Standards Bodies are ready
to meet the challenge.
The key question is how to define the yardstick against which existing or
forthcoming standards could be measured. The best practice rhetoric is more
and more governing the political debate, in particular in areas where clear-cut
legal requirements are missing. This author will make clear that the concept of
best practice can be used as a starter to develop so-called core consumer
elements. Core consumer elements are deduced from existing regulatory
concepts where best practice show up as well as from non-regulatory voluntary
codes, guidelines, recommendations and standards. These core consumer
elements will then be put into practice in order to review the relevant existing
EC regulation of services and the major existing national 19 , European and
international technical standards of services. For analytical purposes the set of
rules are grouped together in six categories.
The rather disappointing outcome of the review process serves as a starter for
more general observations on the strength and weaknesses of standardisation
in the field of services. The weaknesses are identified and serve as a starter to
17 OJ C 136, 4.6.1985, 100.
18 Only UK, Germany, France and to some extent Finland are taken into account, see
Chapter III, III, 2.
19 Only UK, Germany, France and to some extent Finland are taken into account, see
Chapter III, III, 2.
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