Seven major companies are proposing global guidelines for
consumer protection in an effort to boost consumer confidence in
e-commerce. The coalition, including IBM, Microsoft, Dell, AOL and
AT&T, also want an international system to resolve disputes
over on-line purchases.
The coalition proposal requires companies to sign up to it and
then abide by its guidelines. These will include full disclosure of
the terms of sale, an opportunity to review the transaction and
discussion of all costs involved in the transaction and shipping.
Standards for cancellation, return and refund policies, for
packaging and security of consumers’ personal records will also be
set. The details have still to be finalised.
The proposal comes at the same time as an announcement by the UK
government to postpone the introduction of regulations which will
put new obligations on e-commerce businesses selling to
consumers.
The US proposal overlaps with the proposed UK regulations in
some key areas. Because the UK regulations are implementing a
European Directive, there is a risk of inconsistency between the
regime throughout Europe and the new proposal coming from the US
companies. This would, at the very least, could cause confusion for
e-commerce businesses.
The US proposal includes an on-line dispute resolution system
which would handle e-mail complaints, although its decisions would
not prevent either the consumer or the business from taking the
dispute to a court.
