Big Third-Party Certifiers and the Construction of Transnational Regulation

Abstract

International trade is increasingly regulated through standardization, certification, and accreditation. To ensure that consumers can trust that the products they buy meet regulators’ standards, third-party certifiers and accreditation bodies, which “certify the certifiers,” act as intermediaries enlisted to deliver conformity assessment certificates to producers. This article explores how a few third-party certifiers have exploited their position between multiple regulators and diverse targets to invest in a growing number of sectors, expand globally, and become preferred advisers to regulators. As regulators enlist them to standardize certification practices, big third-party certifiers (BTPCs) advise regulators to set system-based regulations that are better suited to their own organizations and networks of international subsidiaries.

Jurisgenerative role of auditors in transnational labor governance

“…While the “audit society” was initially associated with public sector and financial auditing under New Public Management (Power , ), the importance of auditing has only increased over time with its expansion into the fields of quality management systems, and environmental and labor standards. With this continued growth over the past decades, we now witness the consolidation of auditing services among large firms, or “big third party certifiers” (Galland ).…”

“…Although treated primarily as intermediaries, previous research demonstrates that auditors are also frequently involved in rulemaking processes (Fransen & LeBaron forthcoming). Reasons for their involvement in rulemaking – a task usually associated with the regulator rather than the intermediary – stem in part from their expertise in on‐the‐ground behavior of targets and the practical implementation of rules (Galland , p. 272). This expertise is particularly influential during the early stages of rule development and operationalization (Auld & Renckens ).…”

“…While the “intermediation feedback” of auditors at these early stages may be particularly influential, in the case of the Marine Stewardship Council this feedback notably occurred outside formal governance structures (Auld & Renckens , p. 103). Furthermore, auditors have an organizational incentive to influence rulemaking processes so that rules become uniform and their implementation tasks become as standardized, and thus as efficient, as possible (Galland , p. 275). This reflects the insight that regulation has become an industry in itself, and that market influences on auditing firms can drive them to influence rulemaking processes in ways that are financially and organizationally beneficial to them (van der Heijden ).…”

Private Food Safety Standards in the EU

“…Galland distinguishes between two Tripartite Standard Regimes (standardization, certification, accreditation). The European Union did foster the development of a certification industry by obliging some producers to employ third party certification in the context of the 'New Approach to Technical Harmonisation and Standardisation' (Galland 2017;Verbruggen & Van Leeuwen 2015). The EU constructed a notification system and a list of competent certification bodies.…”

Standardization as Spaces of Diversity

“…That competition means that the ways in which standards are controlled can vary from one certification body to the next. On the other hand, certifiers may present very different organizational models as they have been set up in various circumstances and various local contexts (Galland 2017). This too produces diversity in standards systems.…”