Every answer in this related question has some phrasing about it being unethical or, as the first answer "does not have the right". Does a supervisor have right to submit paper without consents of coauthor students?
Another similar question and answer states simply "No" to being 'allowed' to do this. Co-author blocking publication . Some comments suggest it is extremely rare and unlikely someone would do this.
This question is similar Paper submitted by co-author without authorization, but about how to handle the situation as they still wanted it to be accepted.
Yet, the one case I can find in COPE, the self-described Committee on Publication Ethics, does not seem to consider this a journal issue.
• The corresponding author submitted an article without the knowledge of all or some of his co-authors.
• The corresponding author was under contract with research centre X at that time.
• The scientific content of the article is correct. A minor error that occurred since publication can be corrected by an erratum.
The result/answer to this problem:
On a show of hands, half of the Forum suggested that the editor do nothing further, a few suggested publishing a correction or some form of note on the paper regarding the authorship dispute, and only two people suggested a retraction.
Are there any reasons, legal or society-wise (does IEEE or some groups have specific information related), that this is not the standard? This is not a question on if someone is allowed to just publish, it is literally asking, so-what if they do? What can possibly happen (to a paper or person) if someone publishes a manuscript without their co-authors permission?