Excellent news for standards development in general and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in particular: ACT | The App Association, an organization that claims to represent small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) but is funded by Apple, Amazon and other large tech companies, has withdrawn its ETSI membership application.
In an opinion piece, ip fray made one last call to side with French standardization body AFNOR. national governments and others who opposed the application (December 1, 2025 ip fray article).
ACT made one last push. Its founder and chairman, Mike Sax, and its current president, Morgan Reed, were personally on the Côte d’Azur to attend the ETSI General Assembly (GA) and campaign for their membership application. We have now learned that they have abandoned the application, apparently in the face of resistance. It is also quite possible that corporate backers like Apple pulled the plug as they did not want public debate over what ACT is all about.
Good riddance. Now it’s time for the European Commission, the European Parliament and other institutions and organizations to reject ACT’s fake representation of SMEs unless ACT dissolves as a non-profit U.S. corporation and becomes a membership-driven association, with actual members who elect their leadership and set the agenda. If the EU institutions and others are serious about transparency in lobbying, they must reject a list of SME “members” that have zero voting rights.
The interests of SMEs must be considered, in standardization and in policy-making, but only if SMEs appoint their advocates and set the agenda. There are legitimate SME organizations out there.