Internet traders are urged to abide by some key principles for consumer protection in electronic commerce.
Consumers, on the other hand, will do well to raise their awareness and understanding of those key principles to safeguard their interest in e-commerce.
The call was made by the Chairman of the Consumer Council, Professor Andrew CHAN Chi-fai, while launching the 1999 International Internet Sweep Day today ( September 23).
Hong Kong joins forces with 29 consumer protection agencies around the world in this year's Sweep Day to examine Internet websites against some key consumer protection principles.
The principles have been partly derived from the Draft OECD Guidelines for Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce that are currently being finalised.
Said the Chairman: "The work being undertaken by participants in the Sweep Day will contribute to the growing body of knowledge on this marketing phenomenon. This knowledge base will assist traders, consumer agencies and policy making bodies around the world to understand the principles which are important to build consumer confidence in e-commerce."
As part of a global exercise, the Consumer Council will sweep the Internet to obtain information about the characteristics of e-commerce websites, publicise the principles to online traders and consumers, and provide details for obtaining further information where desired.
Approximately 200 websites will be visited during the sweep, in conjunction with two Hong Kong schools which are being co-opted to assist as part of the Council's consumer education program. A questionnaire ( Attachment 1 ) will be filled out for each website for subsequent forwarding to the central coordinating body, the International Marketing Supervision Network (IMSN) in Australia, for collation of the results.
The principles require Internet traders to provide some basic information such as the identification of the business (an email address, telephone number, etc), information of the goods or services (e.g. price, payment terms and delivery mode, cooling-off period, etc), confirmation process (conclusion of contract), consumer complaints and dispute resolution, applicable law and privacy.
Details of these key principles ( Attachment 2 ) are also useful for the reference of consumers.