reports

This page highlights some of the more useful or provocative government and private sector reports and other writings.

It covers -

• global studies
• local research
• North America

     global perspectives

An overview of international initiatives for consumer protection in the electronic marketplace is provided by the August 1999 report for the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC).

It is complemented by Consumers@shopping, the major report  from the Consumers International organisation noted earlier in this guide. It offers a detailed international comparative study of electronic commerce that highlighted concerns regarding service reliability, redress, ordering processes, applicable law, cookies and other matters. 

There is a broader view in International Perspectives on Consumers' Access To Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2003) edited by Charles Rickett & Thomas Telfer.

US perspectives on Consumer Protection in the Global Electronic Marketplace were provided by a major conference under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission. 

The Advisory Committee on Online Access & Security (ACOAS) of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently reported on consumer access to information collected by commercial websites and the security of that information. 

John Goldring's paper on Consumer Protection, The Nation State, Law, Globalisation & Democracy is a useful starting point in thinking about online consumer jurisdiction issues. 

The 1995 address by Larry Irving, US Asst Secretary for Communications & Information, on Safeguarding Consumers Interests in Cyberspace is less rigorous. Turn to Reinhard Schu's 1996 Masters dissertation on Consumer Protection & Private International Law in Internet Contracts instead.

Our governance guide explores questions of jurisdiction, private law, arbitration mechanisms and other aspects of international electronic commerce.

That guide points to resources such as the Global Internet Project's 1999 paper on Jurisdiction in Cyberspace. 

We also recommend the Commonwealth Attorney-General's discussion paper on the proposed Hague Convention on Jurisdiction & Foreign Judgements in Civil & Commercial Matters (HCCH), an international agreement applying to most private litigation. As we noted earlier in this guide, such a convention is more likely to get off the ground than the American Bar Association's proposal cyberspace law project has called for a global commission to set international rules regarding banking, consumer protection, privacy, taxation, gambling and other online activities.

The European Commission has announced a package of Legislative Proposals for a new Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications, with directives on telecommunications privacy, access and interconnection among others.

     and locally

For many people the most useful resource will be the Commonwealth's recent Shopping Online: Facts For Consumers fact sheets.

Regrettably, the links to key Treasury Department publications such as Building Consumer Sovereignty In Electronic Commerce: A Best Practice Model have been dead whenever we've visited.

The Australian Consumers' Association site offers information about consumers rights.

The Australian Treasury Department has a small set of pointers to e-commerce and consumer affairs sites and documents, in particular the 1998 Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce: Principles & Key Issues paper from the National Advisory Council on Consumer Affairs and the October 1999 Policy Framework for Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) published a fact sheet on Where To Get Consumer Protection Advice.

     North America

The American Bar Association in 2002 established SafeShopping, a website devoted to online consumer protection issues. It subsequently developed an excellent site exploring global jurisdiction issues. 

The US Electronic Commerce & Consumer Protection Group (ECCP) includes America Online, AT&T, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Network Solutions, and Time Warner.  

In launching the group a spokesman indicated that "we are proposing a model that can now be evaluated by all companies doing business online, consumers, and governments around the world," going on to describe its new guidelines as a contribution to "an important global dialogue on how to construct a set of global rules for a global medium."

Simson Garfinkel's Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century (O'Reilly: Sebastopol 2000) is a study of consumer profiling, online marketing and other issues.



    next page  (trouble spots)