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Does e-commerce fuel, counterfeit products?
2007-11-13 09:45:53
By Michael Mbiro
The Problem of counterfeit products keeps growing and poses great threat to consumers in the country. Some have already suffered heavy losses.
However, as the country is busy looking for solutions to the problem, there are views that the issue of e-commerce brings with it some side effects on consumers much as it speeds up business processes worldwide. Staff Writer Michael Mbiro reports more.
The development and increasing use of commercial transactions over the Internet presents consumer protection policy makers with a new challenge.
While consumers in some national jurisdictions are offered protection through a number of laws and institutional backup, they lack this support in transactions conducted over the Internet.
If the products or services are defective, it is impossible to get a cost-effective remedy.
This presents a dilemma for this rising marketing area: how can we have a system that consumers can trust? Put it another way, if nothing is done, a ``black hole`` in consumer protection can emerge.
In response to this issue, the ISO Committee on consumer policy (COPOLCO) adopted a resolution in May 1998 asking the then established working group (WG) on consumer protection in the global marketplace to develop detailed arguments to convince other stakeholders involved in the development of standards, of the need for specific actions, and specific and documented proposals for new fields of technical activity, including the handling of complaints.
An expert with ISO, Bill Dee, who is also a Convenor of COPOLCO working group, specialized in consumer protection in the global marketplace says at a meeting held in Brazil, some years back, COPOLCO agreed that it would submit to the WG’s proposal to develop an International Standard on e-commerce.
The WG highlighted that the e-commerce transactions can present numerous challenges for consumers and businesses alike.
In the Internet-based marketplace, e-consumers are at a disadvantage because they cannot touch and interact with the product in the same way as with conventional marketplace purchases.
Dee also hints that there are also the added difficulties of the authentication of the merchants’ identity, their reliability, the disclosure of accurate and sufficient information to allow for informed online transactions, payment security, and fair marketing practices, assurances of consumer safety and of getting redress if something goes wrong.
Expounding further, the expert says online merchants also face challenges in persuading consumers that they are reliable and that their products are what consumers want.
Furthermore, the situation is complicated by cross-jurisdictional purchases where it is not clear which or even whose rules apply.
For instance, he says, when there are existing national-based e-commerce rules, should the buyer’s or the seller’s jurisdiction be considered?
Consequently, the WG’s position, he says, is that an ISO guidance standard will ideally address such problems.
If someone analyses the problem of fake products and counterfeiting, they could agree with me that e-commerce might be one of the main factors that contribute to and fan the flooding of fake and counterfeit products.
It is obvious that when operating businesses using the e-commerce technology, it is crucial for the local buyers to go and verify the product before it is exported so as to avert the risk of loss.
It is also advisable for the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) to assist the local goods importers; particularly those using the e-commerce technology, by giving them necessary skills that will enable them not fall into business traps.
NBS has managed to establish some centres abroad for checking and verifying vehicle imports in ensuring that no junks get into the country.
That commendable move has drastically reduced the rate of junk vehicle imports.
It is understood that there is a good number of local importers who have already started applying the e-commerce technology in doing their businesses. Although it is a positive move, they should do it with extra care.
In recent days we have witnessed the government taking stringent measures against fake and counterfeit products. Therefore, if one does not exercise utmost care, they might land into similar problems.
On the other hand, Dee reports that National Standard bodies have recently voted in favour of developing an International Standard in the field of network services billing by retail service providers.
This follows an initiative from the UK energy user group, Energywatch, after experiencing high customer dissatisfaction with many aspects of billing.
A number of other countries also called for an International Standard on this matter.
A new work item proposal on the development of a guidance standard on consumer product recall and corrective action and code of good practice, has now been sent to all national standards bodies for their response.
The goal of this standard, according to Dee, will be to identify high-level principles which could be applied in a cross-cutting fashion. Dee says when developing the justification paper, the WG noted that many countries have no such procedures.
He says following a justification paper on guidelines for regulatory compliance programmes, COPOLCO agreed at its 2007 meeting that it will submit the proposal for the development of an International Standard.
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