This contribution underlines the impact of the strategic decisions in the rivalry between quality standards. It presents the case of the forest sustainable management. A voluntary certification is organized to protect the threatened forests. But the recourse to the voluntary standards, instead of law, produces unexpected effects. Particularly, the organizations of standardization have to manage the emergence of rival standards and engage in complex competitive relations. Considering the contributions of the institutional work authors, we examine this rivalry and show how the battle is played on the research of legitimacy but also through not confessed competitive actions.