Private Food Regulation from a Regulatee's Perspective

Abstract

Regulatory regimes may be conceptualised as consisting of three elements: rule-making (standard setting), monitoring compliance, and enforcement (administration of sanctions) (Picciotto 2002, Scott 2002). Many different forms of private regulation exist, examples are: corporate social responsibility initiatives, codes of conduct, and private standards. In the paper we focus on private food standards and aim to explore the meaning of private standards for those who are regulated by them (regulatees). We therefore looked at the position of regulatees in private regulatory regimes. Three factors seem to affect that position: 1 ) the level of exactingness of the regulation for the regulatee, 2) the level of voluntariness to stay out of the regulatory regime, 3) the level of the regulatee’s control over the regulatory regimes.From these factors, five research questions were developed: 1) how easy is it for regulatees to comply with the standard, 2) is joining the standard voluntary, 3) who sets the rules, 4) who monitors compliance, and 5) who enforces compliance with these rules? These questions are answered for four private food standards: BRC, GlobalGAP, MSC and EKO. We conclude that the internal organisation and governance structure of private food standards varies highly. The position of regulatees in regulatory regimes has developed in course of time.