Free access to standards?

Harmonized standards are part of Union law and must therefore be accessible to all citizens free of charge. This was the ruling of the ECJ on 05.03.2024 (see https://curia.europa.e u/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-03/cp240041de.pdf).

Free standards, that sounds like a good judgment at first. Who hasn’t been annoyed when they’ve had to pay €100 or more for a standard?

However, the ruling only concerns “harmonized” standards. And thus only a part of all standards, whereby the harmonized standards are certainly the most important standards.

It is not yet possible to predict what impact the ruling will have on the work of the standardization bodies in the long term. After all, associations such as DIN or DKE are financed by the revenue from the sale of standards. Without these associations, our current standardization system would be unthinkable.

In any case, there is also the question of what impact the ruling will have on international standardization. Many companies have a great interest in international standards. These international standards make it possible to develop a product and sell it in many countries. However, the international standards are currently subject to a charge in all countries of the world.

One possible effect could be that national and international associations no longer submit standards for harmonization. The EU could of course develop its own standards. However, these standards would certainly only be applicable in the EU and the advantage of internationally valid standards would no longer apply.