Private and public sectors feeling pressure to deliver trustmarks by Christmas

A broadly-based working group of consumer, government and private sector representatives is working to implement a "seal-of-seals" program later this year to certify ecom sites (CNM, July 12/00). Canadian consumers have repeatedly demonstrated their lack of trust in electronic transactions, a situation which costs online retailers millions of dollars every year in potential sales. Now, an outgrowth of the private sector Canadian E-Business Opportunities Roundtable Report, published in mid-January, is working to create a Canadian-branded consumer protection trustmark, backed by a neutral dispute resolution mechanism. If all goes well, the working group will have a certification program in place by Christmas that will cover online business practices, privacy protection and include a complaints-handling procedure. The group, headed by Bell Canada’s Robert Tritt, director of international trade and regulation, has met several times over many months to discuss creating a not-for-profit corporation, with business, consumer and government representatives on the board, to manage and accredit seal programs and codes of business practices. Accredited sites would feature the program’s trustmark on their site as a notice of compliance with Canadian standards – along with a mechanism to monitor and supervise compliance. In late May, the group completed work identifying legal and policy issues that needed to be addressed, and it is now working to incorporate the trustmark and begin a public awareness campaign. "Studies have been done that there are a lot of consumers interested, and who do a lot of browsing, but seem to be reluctant to do that last step of actually buying," says Tritt. He notes that privacy and security are the biggest concerns among consumers, whether there is an actual risk or not. "The view of many is that perceptions are as much a problem as the reality. In fact, the problems may not be as great as a lot of consumers think. But, as long as there’s the perception out there that they might get ripped off by an unscrupulous operator, that slows down the growth of the market." Canada is one of several countries and groups that are studying the trustmark issue. The Better Business Bureau is among them. Rather than replicate those efforts, the seal-of-seals program aims to develop some general guidelines which will help consumers distinguish between reliable seal programs and those that aren’t. "What you’d be looking to do is to educate the consumer to look for a trusted seal that meets the Canadian standard. They would know that by the mark that we would put, probably, on the website of the seal program." Canada’s working group includes representatives from the private sector, the Canadian Marketing Association, Industry Canada, CANARIE Inc and consumer groups like the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. The group hopes to have criteria in place by late September. Right now, it is working with the ecom protection proposals accepted last fall by Industry Canada, dubbed Principles of Consumer Protection for Electronic Commerce. At the same time, the group hopes to have work completed on the legalities of establishing the program and its operating structure. By late November, it would like to have finalized appointments to the board, have set up an operating structure with a program administrator, concluded licensing agreements with its first customers, and officially launch the program. The group has asked CANARIE for funding to continue its legal work required to set up the organization, as well as assistance to define the infrastructure, including the related costing and funding models. In a June 27 presentation to CANARIE’s Net 2000 conference in Ottawa, Tritt also asked CANARIE to consider the role it could play in ongoing funding of the organization as well as providing logistical support.

Private and public sectors feeling pressure to deliver trustmarks by Christmas

News | 07/26/2000 4:00 am EDT

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