What does the NFC Forum actually decide?
The NFC Forum is the industry body that specifies what makes a device or a tag interoperable: the tag types, the NDEF data format, the activation procedure and a certification programme. It does not write the ISO standards the radio layer rests on, and it does not design chips.
What it specifies
Four things, and they are the four that decide whether a tag written by one device can be read by another.
The tag types, which describe the command set a compliant reader must implement. NDEF, the container format that makes stored content self describing. The activation sequence, which is how a reader and a tag agree on how to talk before any data moves. And a certification programme with a mark that a compliant product may carry.
The current specification texts are published on the NFC Forum site.
What it does not touch
It does not write ISO/IEC 14443, 18092 or 15693. Those come from the standards bodies and predate the Forum, which builds on top of them rather than replacing them.
It does not design chips. NTAG, MIFARE and the rest are manufacturer product lines that may or may not conform to a Forum tag type, and conformance is a claim to be verified rather than assumed.
And it does not decide what your phone does when it reads a tag. That is entirely the operating system, which is why the same tag behaves differently on Android and on iOS.
Why certification matters to a buyer
A listing that says "NFC compatible" means nothing. The phrase is unregulated and appears on products that no phone will read.
What means something is a stated NFC Forum tag type, because that tells you which command set the chip implements and therefore whether a stock phone can talk to it without a specialised application. A supplier who cannot name the tag type of what they are selling does not know what they are selling.
The practical test
Ask for the chip reference and the NFC Forum tag type. Both, not one. The chip reference tells you the memory and the features, the tag type tells you the interoperability.
If the answer to either is vague, the risk is not that the tags are bad. It is that they work on the phone you tested with and fail on a third of the ones your customers own, which is a far more expensive failure to discover after printing.
Frequently asked questions
Is the NFC Forum a standards body like ISO?
It is an industry consortium rather than a formal standards organisation. Its specifications sit on top of ISO and JIS standards and address interoperability between products, which is a narrower and more practical question than the ones ISO deals with.
Does a tag have to be certified to work?
No. Plenty of uncertified tags conform in practice and read perfectly. Certification is a guarantee rather than a requirement, and its value is highest when you are buying in quantity from a supplier you cannot test exhaustively.
Who decides what my phone does when I tap a tag?
The operating system, not the NFC Forum. The specification stops once the content has been read. Everything after that, including whether a confirmation appears and which application is offered, is a platform decision.
Are the specifications free to read?
Some are available from the NFC Forum site, and access conditions have varied over time. The Android and Apple developer documentation is a practical free substitute for most questions a deployment actually raises.