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8 May 2001, Spain

Dear Dr.Ecommerce,

Could you inform me about codes of conduct as tools for consumer protection in e-commerce? I would like to know how many there are in the world, links where can I find them, if the codes will have a future in the Internet, your opinion, other opinions, analysis between them, etc...

I am looking forward your answer,

María

Dear María:

There must be thousands of codes of conduct for B2C e-commerce and all of these in some way intend to protect the consumer. Indeed, you could even write your own code of conduct if you wanted to. After all, a code of conduct is essentially just advice - it is not in any way legally binding.

However, it is important to bear in mind that one key barrier that slows down e-commerce is lack of trust. Half of all Europeans do not trust e-commerce enough to buy on line. If codes of conduct issued by trustworthy organisations help increase trust, they are a good thing.

The Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org), a US organisation, has written what I think is a very good code of conduct at http://www.bbbonline.org/code/code.asp.

You can also find other sample codes of conduct if you go to your favourite search engine and enter: "code of conduct" AND "electronic commerce".

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce