§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures her Department is taking to regulate the use of(a) symbols and (b) hallmarks by web-traders. [157212]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe Government do not regulate directly the use of symbols and hallmarks by web-traders. Some web-traders use these devices to show that they subscribe to voluntary codes of practice for electronic commerce. The Government encourage the development of self-regulatory approaches to electronic commerce as a light touch alternative to legislation.
The Enterprise Act 2002 empowers the Office of Fair Trading to approve consumer codes of practice. These arrangements apply to consumer codes generally; they could cover codes for e-commerce, but are not specific to such codes or to symbols and hallmarks used by web-traders.
The Trade Marks Act 1994 protects signs that are used to indicate the origin of goods, and the courts have confirmed that this law applies equally to the use of such signs on the internet.
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§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many businesses have been accredited with the TrustUK e-hallmark in each year since its inception; and what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of TrustUK in increasing consumer confidence for on-line shopping. [157213]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe number of businesses accredited with the TrustUK e-hallmark in each year since its inception is:
Number of web-traders 2000 3,765 2001 4,500 2002 5,285 2003 12,941 1Decrease in numbers follows the closure of the Consumers' Association's Which? WebTrader scheme in January 2003. Figures provided by TrustUK. Trust UK is a private sector organisation, which was originally set up with Government endorsement by the Alliance for Electronic Business and The Consumers' Association.
The Department has participated in two reviews of the TrustUK scheme. These reviews concluded that TrustUK should switch from regulatory work to promoting best practice more generally.
In 2003, DTI decided to withdraw the secretariat services it provides to the TrustUK approvals committee. This decision took into account the pressure on DTI resources, recent changes to the legislative framework including the Enterprise Act 2002 (which sets out a new approach to codes of practice), and the Department's belief that TrustUK, as a private sector self-regulatory organisation, should be able to operate independently.
The extent to which schemes like TrustUK are able to enhance consumer confidence depends on their ability to generate demand from business and profile among consumers.
Since its launch TrustUK has achieved much. Its criteria for e-commerce codes and its "code of codes" model have attracted positive interest and among other things have influenced the European Commission's thinking on an EU-wide code scheme for e-commerce.