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

Services Standards
already existing national, European or international standards, codes,
guidelines or recommendations, these findings are not reflected in the adopted
version of the standard. Technical standards are usually unrelated to their legal
environment. That is why the world of standardisation appears to be separated
from the legal world of binding or default regulation. The two worlds might coexist
without too much overlapping if standardisation is limited to defining
technical issues in the proper sense 423 . However, the more standardisation is
overstepping these boundaries – and it is the explicit policy of the European
Commission that the Standards Bodies are moving this way – the more it is
necessary, even indispensable, to indicate the legal environment in which the
standards have to be embedded.
The here chosen approach of reviewing technical standards against the core
consumer elements provides ample evidence for such an assessment. The first
step into that direction has been the well-known New Approach which pushed
the development of safety related standards. The Service Directive now
delegates the broad issue of laying down standards on the quality of the
services into the hands of European and National Standards Bodies. This
includes more than ever all issues around contract making.
In short, standard-making has become less technical and much more political.
Instead of weighing and measuring technical specifications, weighing and
measuring of social behaviour is increasingly required 424 . This implies the need
to link legal regulation to technical regulation and vice versa technical regulation
to legal regulation. So far the communication remains one sided. Whilst more
and more references to standardisation may be found in legal regulation, no
such development can be reported from the standardisation business.
5. Systematic versus piecemeal standardisation
EC regulation and standardisation suffer from the same deficiencies. Most of
the rules and standards are sector-specific, although quite a number of issues
bear a horizontal character. In law, the vertical approach leads to
inconsistencies and to frictions, at least if one undertakes the attempt to
compare the vertical regulations. It is a well-known reaction that each vertical
approach produces its own communication process. Just one example might
highlight what is meant. Network services cover telecommunications, postal
services, electricity and gas, railway services and public transport. Despite a
423 The question of whether and to what extent technical standards in particular in new
technologies may limit legislative leeway in the long run has been deliberately left aside.
424 This aspect has been underlined by one of ANEC’s observers in technical committees.
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