I know you have to have a lot of pull to get to AAA status. However for those companies that are in between who decides? I mean whats to keep Joe's Shoe repair from declaring itself extraterritorial?

The corprate Court decides that .There's influence peddling of course that goes in to it, I'm sure a minimum gross worth or something to the effect, and it has to be multi-national. It's a big deal because AA gets you extraterratorial rights (sp?).

Yeah, it's the big boys club. In order to get in, not only do you have to meet certain requirements, I imagine "gifts" of a wide and varied nature to the various powers that be would help along ones application for AA status.

I don't think anything is stopping a corporation from negotiating extraterritoriality with the goverment of the country they're located in, except the corporate court would probably pressure the goverement since this is stepping on their toes.

If a corporation is to attain extraterritoriality everywhere in the world(Except the Tirs, Aztlan, Amazonia, Manchuria and Yakut, where I think there is no extraterritoriality) they would have to be given AA rating by the corporate court though.
If a corporation isn't multi-national the corporate court won't even give it an A rating, so Joe's Shoe Repair wouldn't be rated by the CC.

Corporations gain classification as AA by the Corporate Court if they have a strong multinational presence, proven stability, and can weasle enough influence to get the Court to rule in their favor.

Any and all countries which signed the Business Recognition Accords must grant them extraterritorial rights. The BRA defines the rights local authorities must extend to AA and AAA megacorporations, these rights all boil down to "extraterritoriality."

Aztlan, Tír na nÓg, Tir Tairngire, and a few others do not grant extraterritorial rights to corporations, and have never signed the BRA.

Go read Corporate Download.

Of course the main problem with getting rated as an AA corp is that you have to apply for it whilst still being an A rated one. Which puts you in the very precarious position of being a high value target for the AAA/AA vultures but not having the benefits of extraterritoriality yourself to hide behind yet. I think Corporate Download mentioned that more corporations applying for AA ratings get picked apart by the extraterritorial ones than actually make it.

'Cause like you said, they're big and tasty and have a proven track record, but aren't necessarily strong enough to fight a take over by a AA or AAA.

Corp Download is a great book. So many ideas. Good stuff for getting ideas of the motivation behind runs, so you can take your shadowruns into the upper echelons of the corps.