Kuala Lumpur, Nov. 30, 2004. The establishment of a global online consumer protection network has moved a major step closer.

Self-regulatory organizations from eight nations in Asia, Europe and the Americas, an Asian coalition of e-commerce organizations, and three pan-European bodies, announced today the formation of an organizing committee that will establish a Global Trustmark Alliance (GTA). The new alliance intends to promote safe electronic commerce within each of the participating jurisdictions, and a trustworthy system for cross border e-commerce.

"This is an important development for the growth of e-commerce," Steven Cole, GTA's Executive Director and senior vice president of BBBOnLine, told the GBDe Summit today. "We all know consumer trust and confidence is crucial to growth, and this is even more important for trade across borders. International cooperation amongst key regional organizations that all help consumers find trustworthy online businesses promises to fuel interest in cross border e-commerce," Cole added.

The Asia Trustmark Alliance (ATA), one of the existing trustmark alliances at a regional level, and its members, will be part of the GTA pioneering committee. Dr Ho-Ming Huang, Chairman of ATA said that "after laying the foundation for a pan-Asian collaborative framework, it is only natural that Asia Trustmark Alliance looks toward closer co-operation at an international level." "In this respect, it is in the mutual interest of both trust organizations to work together to achieve our similar objectives, which is promotion of trustworthy e-commerce environment," Huang added.

The announcement was made at the 2004 summit of the Global Business Dialogue for Electronic Commerce (GBDe). The GBDe is a CEO-driven organization that has been instrumental in promoting international rules to promote worldwide growth in e-commerce. It has supported the formation of the GTA since it was first conceived and was instrumental in bringing diverse trustmark organizations together for the first time. The GTA is an outgrowth of recommendations made by GBDe in past years for close cooperation amongst trustmark programs and for the linking together of dispute settlement mechanisms.

The organizations participating in GTA are:

From the Americas:

• BBBOnLine (United States)
• BBBOnLine (Canada)

From Asia:

• Asia Trustmark Alliance
• Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce (Korea)
• National Trust Council, and its accredited trustmark programs, CommerceNet and Case Trust (Singapore)
• Secure Online Shopping Association (Taiwan)
• Electronic Commerce Promotion Council (Japan)

From Europe:

• Trust UK (United Kingdom)
• E-comtrust (European and Switzerland)
• Eurochambres (European)
• Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing (European)

Many of the participating organizations operate trustmark programs that allow businesses that meet high standards to display a trustmark, or label, on e-commerce web sites. All of the organizations promote self-regulatory codes of online business practices and effective dispute settlement procedures.

The GTA Organizing Committee will begin work immediately to share best practices in the administration of trustmark programs, and to establish cooperative procedures to resolve cross border complaints. GTA's longer term goal is to harmonize the various voluntary online business practice codes, and to issue an international GTA trustmark that would be co-branded with the local trustmarks used in each jurisdiction.

GTA's web site is at www.globaltrustmarkalliance.org/

***********

The Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe), www.gbde.org, is a worldwide, CEO-led, business initiative, established in January 1999 to assist in the creation of a global policy framework. Many of the core principles set out in GBDe recommendations have been incorporated into international Government e-commerce initiatives.

AMERICAS

• BBBOnLine, www.bbbonline.org , is a division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, BBBOnLine's mission is to promote trust and confidence on the Internet through the BBBOnLine Reliability and Privacy Seal Programs. BBBOnLine's web site seal programs allow companies with web sites to display the seals once they have been evaluated and confirmed to meet the program requirements. Approximately 18,000 web sites are qualified to display the BBBOnLine seal, making it the largest e-commerce trustmark program in the world. The BBB organization in Canada is coordinated by the Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus.

ASIA

• The Asia Trustmark Alliance was established by Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to elevate the national trustmarks in the respective countries to regional status and thus opening up business opportunities for its accredited members beyond local markets.
• ECOM, www.ecom.jp/ecom_e/index.html, the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council of Japan, is a private non-profit organization, whose mission is to promote electronic commerce. ECOM has conducted ADR Pilot Projects financed by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), since November 2001.
• KIEC, the Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce, www.kiec.or.kr/kiec_eng/index.asp, is a comprehensive policy research and promotional agency established under article 22 of the Basic Law on Electronic Commerce, to effectively and systematically pursue policies supporting electronic commerce. Its main activities include the eTrust mark, the Grand Prize of e- Business and other programs to promote electronic commerce; building trust and infrastructure for electronic commerce; developing and disseminating standards for growing B2B e-commerce; fostering expert human resources and consulting in the area of e-commerce and participating in international activities for standardization and increase of cooperation. The eTrust mark currently has 53 participants.
• National Trust Council, Singapore, www.trustsg.org.sg, is an industry-led body formed to build confidence amongst businesses and consumers to accelerate infocomm technology adoption in Singapore. NTC manages the national trustmark programme and appoints sector-specific authorized Code Owners (ACO) to accredit e-businesses that meet its stringent standards of e-commerce practices. Currently, CommerceNet Singapore operates for both the B2C and B2B categories while the Consumers Association of Singapore operates for the B2C category . CommerceNet Singapore Ltd, www.cnsg.com.sg, is a not-for-profit eCommerce facilitator and part of the global CommerceNet consortium represented in various countries. Consumers Association of Singapore, www.case.org.sg, a non-profit organization committed to protect and enhance consumers' interests through information and education as well as promote fair and ethical trade practices.
• SOSA, www.sosa.org.tw, is the Secure Online Shopping Association in Taiwan. SOSA promotes electronic commerce in Taiwan and operates a trustmark program that awards the SOSA trustmark to Taiwan businesses that meet its standards. The association is also facilitating the resolution of disputes between online consumers and shops with trustmark.

EUROPE

• E-Comtrust International Association A.S.B.L., www.e-comtrust.org, is comprised of member organizations throughout Europe, organized to promote safe electronic commerce. It is running the project through its Swiss member, to implement a certification program based on consensus business practice standards developed in a CEN Workshop Agreement (CEN CWA 14842:2003, 1-3, e-Trust).
• EUROCHAMBRES, www.eurochambres.be, is the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Through its member organizations, the association represents 2,000 Chambers of Commerce and their 18 million member enterprises in 43 countries. Many European Chambers of Commerce and Industry offer arbitration, mediation and conciliation services - both in B2B and B2C disputes. EUROCHAMBRES intends to make a pan-European trustmark program available to its members, along with an online dispute resolution technology called "Online Confidence."
• FEDMA, www.fedma.org, is the European Federation for the direct/interactive marketing business dedicated to representing direct marketing in all its forms. FEDMA's objective is to protect and promote the European direct marketing business by creating, through representation, self-regulation and information, acceptance and confidence in direct marketing within a healthy commercial and legislative environment in which the sector can profitably operate and develop. FEDMA has more than 350 direct members and represents more than 10,000 companies indirectly through its national DMA members.
• TrustUK, www.trustuk.org.uk, is the UK's e-commerce standards & accreditation agency. A non-profit organization, it is entirely industry led and has the full endorsement of the UK Government. The Board of Directors is made up of consumer representatives and the heads of some of industry's biggest trade organizations. It is committed to ensuring the UK delivers the highest commercial standards of e-commerce. TrustUK's independent Accreditation Committee, which approves the e-commerce codes of practice of subscriber & membership organizations, is chaired by Lord Borrie, QC, a former Director General of the UK's Office of Fair Trading. Only those trustmark programs that meet TrustUK rigorous standards may display the TrustUK logo.