[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 51 (Monday, December 25, 2000)]
[Pages 3107-3109]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement of the United States and the European Union on Building 
Consumer Confidence in E-Commerce and the Role of Alternative Dispute 
Resolution

December 18, 2000

    In the U.S.-EU Joint Statement on Electronic Commerce issued in 
December 1997, we agreed to work towards important goals and objectives 
in the area of electronic commerce. We now reaffirm these important 
goals and objectives, including the agreement

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to provide ``active support for the development, preferably on a global 
basis, of self-regulatory codes of conduct and technologies to gain 
consumer confidence in electronic commerce.'' We also reaffirm our 
commitment to the OECD Guidelines on Consumer Protection in the Context 
of Electronic Commerce issued in December 1999.
    Our common aim is to help generate consumer confidence, which is 
necessary for open, competitive, and cross-border electronic commerce. 
Ensuring consumer protection and generating consumer confidence requires 
a combination of private sector initiatives and a clear, consistent and 
predictable legal framework.
    The means of building consumer confidence and consumer protection in 
shopping online is good business practice and enforceable self-
regulatory programmes such as codes of conduct and trustmarks. Key 
elements to building consumer confidence and consumer protection also 
include security and confidentiality, respect for privacy, high 
standards of customer service, timely delivery, full and fair disclosure 
of information, and responsiveness to complaints.
    We recognise that consumers should have meaningful access to redress 
consistent with the applicable legal framework and should be protected 
from fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair practices. The Internet, which 
can support the growth of cross-border consumer transactions at 
unprecedented levels, poses challenges to the existing legal framework. 
The issues of applicable law and jurisdiction will be difficult to 
resolve in the near term, but solutions at the international level would 
help to achieve our shared goals of global electronic commerce growth, 
consumer confidence and the predictability of transactions.
    If parties cannot resolve consumer issues directly, using ADR is one 
means of doing so. Easy access to fair and effective ADR, especially if 
provided online, has the potential to increase consumer confidence in 
cross-border electronic commerce and may reduce the need for legal 
action. We, accordingly, agree on the importance of promoting its 
development and implementation.
    The expansion of electronic commerce will be essentially market-led 
and driven by private initiative. In addition, all interested 
stakeholders--including governments, consumer groups, industry and 
academics--should work cooperatively to facilitate a dialogue, encourage 
private sector and other initiatives, raise consumer awareness about 
enforceable self-regulatory programs and promote the development and use 
of fair and effective ADR mechanisms, in particular online. Moreover, in 
order to promote fair and effective ADR in the cross-border context, 
efforts to develop and implement ADR should involve international 
cooperation among all interested stakeholders and the promotion of 
international partnerships. In addition, we encourage all stakeholders 
to continue to participate actively in international workshops and other 
fora on this important topic, which will help support further 
development of ADR.
    At present, there are a wide variety of ADR schemes being developed 
and implemented in the marketplace, employing various different 
approaches and technologies. Governments should maintain adaptable 
policies that encourage the continued growth and development of new and 
innovative ADR mechanisms, technologies or approaches that are fair and 
effective.
    In order to promote consumer confidence, ADR mechanisms should be 
fair and effective. We agree that we share certain general principles to 
achieve fairness and effectiveness. These general principles include: 
the impartiality of any decision-makers; the accessibility of the 
systems and procedures, which should be easy to find and easy to use; 
the need to ensure that the mechanisms are at low or no cost to the 
consumer relative to the amount in dispute; transparency, including the 
importance of providing consumers with clear and conspicuous information 
about the procedures and commitments involved sufficient to enable 
informed choice and decision-making; and the timeliness of redress. 
Stakeholders should continue to work to implement these fundamental 
principles and others that relate to fairness and effectiveness in the 
context of particular ADR mechanisms, taking into account the value, 
complexity and other characteristics of the transaction or dispute at 
issue.

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    Concerning law enforcement, businesses, consumers and governments 
should work together to detect, prevent and stop fraudulent, deceptive 
or unfair activity related to ADR. ADR providers, consumers and 
businesses should be encouraged to forward information on consumer 
complaints regarding fraud, deception, or other serious misconduct with 
regulatory and law enforcement agencies. Governments should cooperate in 
enforcing consumer protection laws against businesses engaging in 
fraudulent, deceptive or unfair activity related to consumer 
transactions on the Internet, such as misrepresentation of compliance 
with seal programmes or codes of conduct related to ADR. For example, we 
should cooperate on consumer complaints and explore cooperation on 
online information sharing.
    Businesses, consumer groups and governments should work together to 
educate consumers and businesses about good business practices, 
including ADR, as a means to ensure fair and effective implementation 
and enforcement, and promote consumer confidence to the fullest extent 
possible.

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this joint statement.