It also ensures technological neutrality and avoids technology lock-in. Industry association codes of conduct establish normative rules of behavior that become standards for performance. Industry association codes of conduct and standards ensure a level playing field for all members but cannot guarantee that bad actors or free riders will not seek to gain a competitive advantage by failing to conform to the requirements. These bad actors also are likely to face the sanction of the Internet community. More than in any other industry, Internet-centric companies have come to depend on standards to ensure interoperability and ubiquitous adoption of technology.
Standards are a self-regulatory mechanism.
Standards are not limited to technical requirements and have been used to develop quality assurance models, management procedures and model agreements. Despite the urgency seen by some governments, it is not possible to construct a self-regulatory framework from these tools overnight. Governments themselves should understand this because it takes much longer to develop the international consensus needed for codification of even basic international norms such as human rights protection or to achieve trade liberalization. Notwithstanding, the Global Action Plan and other private sector-led, international efforts such as the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue and the ILPF's international working group on electronic authentication demonstrate the ability of industry to be more agile and responsive to concerns than governments in the first instance. These modes of private sector communication and cooperation should be encouraged by governments and looked to as the primary source of policy input when examining the nature of any electronic commerce issue.