Of course, certification is not an iron-clad guarantee. Testing cannot always predict the side effects of drugs, nor can it predict every mechanical vulnerability. When defects do become apparent, however, the certification rating of a product is likely to be downgraded. To prevent losing customers, smart businesses will correct the defect through a recall or other suitable means so that their certification stays high. Since certification increases the number of service providers, consumers would have more choices than ever.
Certification promotes consumer confidence and encourages expansion.
Bottled water, for example, successfully competes with the tap water supplied by many local municipalities. Many consumers are dissatisfied with the taste of water that they get from public utilities or object to the health hazards of added chlorine or fluoride. Vendors obtain third-party inspections to certify that their bottled product is superior to tap water or that supplied by the competition. Reports are usually available on request so that consumers can comparison shop. If we woke up tomorrow to find ourselves in a libertarian world, we'd find a great deal of consumer protection already in place via voluntary certification.