[elmo2you]

It might even be argued that the de facto mandatory nature of their standards constitute a form of (international) competitiveness, because their prices sure aren't just trivial to particularly smaller businesses.

Especially when you take into account that in other economies (outside the USA), their prices can be downright show-stoppers.

But then, it isn't particularly a new thing for larger economies to abuse standards and intellectual property regulations, to "compete" with smaller economies in ways that diametrically oppose the supposed (or at least often hailed) purpose and goals of both standards and intellectual property regulations.