In the context of the references made in her annual report for 1999, to advertising on the internet and to internet banking, the Director of Consumer Affairs, Carmel Foley, pointed to these as relatively new developments. She identified one of the key challenges facing Ireland at present, and one to which she acknowledged the Government had shown its commitment and devoted much resources, as how to maximise the opportunity presented by e-commerce. Critical to this, in her assessment, was to recognise that, in whatever steps were taken, there had to be consumer confidence.
I fully share the director's assessment that consumer confidence is a crucial prerequisite for the success of e-commerce. This is true for Ireland, no less than for other EU member states. Indeed, David Byrne, the Commissioner responsible for consumer protection, has identified the current mistrust of e-commerce as a transactional medium to be an important barrier to the completion of the Single On-line Market. At the last Consumer Affairs Council in April 2000, along with other Consumer Affairs Ministers in the EU, I participated in the first discussion on the Commissioner's initial thinking about a new European approach to generating consumer e-confidence. Apart from fostering best business practice, such as trustmarks, codes of conduct and chargebacks, at the heart of the strategy he envisaged was development of a range of alternative dispute resolution, ADR, mechanisms, and linking up a network of existing EU national ADR schemes through the European Extra-Judicial Network, EEJ-Net, as a first step in creating a comprehensive redress system. Disputes could be resolved by the ADR in the country of origin of the business, but consumers would have the reassurance of knowing that they could access that body from their own member state via the EEJ-Net. As a last resort, consumers could seek redress through the courts in their own member state. In Commissioner Byrne's view, a new European approach along these lines would be a balanced one, which would serve to minimise the regulatory burden on business and encourage the evolution of a service-driven Single On-Line Market benefiting consumers and business alike.