Standard Setting Participation Checklist

Summary

This is a checklist of questions you should ask when counseling clients considering participation in a standard setting organization to identify and minimize associated antitrust risks. Standard setting organizations (SSOs)—also called standard development organizations (SDOs)—establish technical specifications to facilitate interoperability across different manufacturers for a particular product. Courts and antitrust enforcers have recognized that standard setting can be beneficial and procompetitive in both upstream and downstream markets by ensuring consumer safety, promoting innovation, and reducing costs. But there are two antitrust risks in SSO activity: concerted activity during the standard-setting process that unreasonably restrains trade and the use of the standard setting process by single firms to illegally obtain or maintain monopoly power.