Part of my research activities has been dedicated to technical standard-setting and specifically the issue whether technical standards set and published by private standard-setting organisations (SSOs) and referred to in European regulations, directives or in European Union (EU) law generally should be regarded as ‘law’, that inter alia must be accessible to the public. Or, could these standards still be private goods, licensed for royalties and, indeed, only accessible to a few? Interestingly, Judge Nils Wahl has together with his colleagues at the Court of Justice of the European Union provided parts of the answer to this question.