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On The EU E-commerce Consumer Protection System

Posted on:2005-06-03Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:W J SunFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360122481891Subject:International Law
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The information society service, mainly composed of electronic commerce, has not only altered forms of service supply and consumption, but has also fostered significant changes of the relationship between service suppliers and consumers. From the consumer's standpoint, consumption benefits that have been brought or will be brought forth by e-commerce are obvious. Briefly, they can be classified into four categories: more convenient service, lower prices, more diversified choice, and more economical consumption. However, while it can lead to so many facilities, this shift of consumers' role has also faced their rights and interests in transactions with more uncertainties, and therefore has caused consumers to hesitate before the attractive online transaction market. In the new consumption environment of this market, consumers do not know enough about the authenticity of relevant information, the procedures of signing a contract, the mechanism of modification, supplement, and correction of contract clauses, the solution of disputes, or the protection from swindles and privacy violations. Thus, they have much misgiving about the safety and operation of e-commerce, and prefer to hold back from it. In the Council Resolution on the Consumer Dimension of the Information Society adopted by the Council of the European Union on November 3, 1998, consumers' concerns in the information society were further expounded. This resolution points out that, "The new information and communications technologies, and the associated development of the Information Society, offer many potential advantages to consumers but also create new commercial situations which are unfamiliar to them and where their interests may be put at risk". It then summarizes consumers' concerns related to the information society, and use the summarization as the foundation of legislation on consumer protection in e-commerce. Based on the analysis above, legislators of the European Union believe that it is possible for consumers to actively participate in the information society only when the society can provide more benefits than potential risks. Similarly, consumers' trust can be established only when a secure, reliable, orderly, and predictable e-commerce market has proven to stabilize. To realize these prerequisites, a series of explicit laws and regulations must be formulated. Due to this consideration, from the unique characteristics of e-commerce and of the customer-supplier relationship in information society, the EU has based and concentrated its e-commerce legislation and regulation on building the consumers' confidence in e-commerce, in order to construct a legal system of e-commerce consumer rights protection. The object of research in this academic paper is the EU e-commerce consumer protection system. This system, briefly, is the sum of a series of legal and political Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts. Official Journal L 144 , 04/06/1997 p. 0019 - 0027 18 Official Journal L 024 , 30/01/1998 p. 0001 - 0008regulations, measures, procedures, and guidance formulated by the EU under its e-commerce strategic framework to foster consumers' confidence in e-commerce, or even the whole information society service. The system reflects comprehensive consideration of EU legislators and policy-makers for the standardization and perfection of consumer protection institutions. It contains legislation over the e-commerce consumer protection, as well as measures at the paralegal and non-legal levels, thus forming a distinct system of multiple regulations. This paper focuses on two aspects of the EU e-commerce legislation: secure online transaction environment, and reliable dispute settlement system. Specifically, the research covers: (1) protection of consumers' rights to be informed and educated; (2) protection of consumers' economic rights; (3) to guarantee quality and safety of products and...
Keywords/Search Tags:e-commerce
PDF Full Text Request
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