Tech giants suggest rules to protect Net shoppers
Hi Kemble! This was timely to read considering the discussion about whether or not people in other countries will buy online. Online security is a factor, but that issue is being addressed. Leigh
"We are proposing a model that can now be evaluated by all companies doing business online, consumers and governments around the world," said Ron Plesser, a lawyer with Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe, who coordinated the group's work.
news.cnet.com
By Reuters
Special to CNET News.com
June 6, 2000, 3:20 p.m. PT
update WASHINGTON--Microsoft, America Online and five other online titans today proposed model international rules aimed at making shopping on the Internet safer.
The seven-member group said it hoped to spur development of a still-to-be-defined "global jurisdictional framework for electronic commerce."
Given the Internet's borderless nature, many Web merchants face "an unworkable hodgepodge of local regulations" in multiple jurisdictions, said the e-commerce group, which also includes AT&T, IBM, Dell Computer, Network Solutions and Time Warner.
"We are proposing a model that can now be evaluated by all companies doing business online, consumers and governments around the world," said Ron Plesser, a lawyer with Piper Marbury Rudnick & Wolfe, who coordinated the group's work.
To build confidence in the online marketplace, consumer protection "is as critical...as are traffic lights and rules of the road to traffic on a concrete highway," the so-called Electronic Commerce and Consumer Protection Group said.
The plan suggests the use of third-party online dispute resolution mechanisms but would not interfere with existing legal recourse or consumer rights to dispute a credit card charge.
"The goal is to resolve these issues in a manner that reflects that the monetary value of these disputes, while important to individual consumers, are often small in amount," the working group said in a statement.
"Therefore, traditional court-based solutions, including small claims courts, particularly for people who live in different countries, are by and large impractical," it said.
The group said online dispute resolution would cut companies' compliance costs, allowing for greater choice and more competition.
The model guidelines for merchants were released at the start of a two-day Federal Trade Commission workshop on online dispute resolution after what the companies said was nine months of preparation.
An FTC spokeswoman, Maneesha Mithal, said the commission encouraged "private-sector efforts" but had not had time to review the group's proposals in detail.
Since its inception less than a decade ago, the online marketplace has grown dramatically, with as many as 90 million Americans now regularly using the Internet.
Of those, 69 percent--or more than 60 million people--shopped online in the third quarter of last year, according to figures cited by the FTC in a report last month on online privacy. Figures on worldwide Internet usage vary widely.
Privacy on tap
In its May 22 report to Congress, three of the five FTC commissioners favored new laws to protect consumers' privacy online. The industry has argued that self-regulation alone can do the job.
In a brief mention of privacy, the working group said merchants should provide consumers with "choices" as to the use of their data for marketing purposes.
But Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters, a Green Brook, N.J., privacy consulting firm, dismissed the group's statement as mere "lip service to some principles of privacy."
He said that absent from their proposals, among other things, was any proposed right to review profiles compiled from a stream of transactional data, a growing industry.
Styled as "best practices" for Web merchants, the guidelines call for standards for cancellation, return and refund policies; for packaging that will ensure products get to the buyer in one piece; and for security for the customers' personal records. Companies should also disclose customer service and support policies, warranty information, and privacy policies, the working group said.
The business-backed proposal resembles guidelines for consumer protection in e-commerce recommended last December by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based economic and social policy group made up of representatives of 29 of the world's wealthiest nations.
Story Copyright ¸ 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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