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Many initiatives are implemented at all levels of governance in order to reshape globalization and mitigate its negative environmental and social impacts. Private voluntary standards are a type of such initiatives, promoted by networks of NGOs, producers and firms. These market-based instruments are proliferating since the end of the 1990s in a number of fields: textile, mining, forests, fishing, and agriculture. Their main specificity lies in their inclusive and participative multi-stakeholder governance structures. Based on two cases in the field of agriculture (soy—RTRS and palm oil—RSPO), this paper describes the privatization of the deliberation processes at stake. It questions the legitimacy of these devices through an assessment of the ability of the various actors in accessing and influencing the decision process and the framing of the debate.