CEG believe that these are necessary to promote consumer confidence in e-commerce, which will in turn give UK consumers improved choices and thus encourage competition. These include the draft Directive on certain legal aspects of e-commerce, the Distance Selling Directive, the draft Directive on the Distance Selling of Financial Services, the reviews of the Brussels and Rome Conventions and the European Commission Action Plan on Consumer Access to Justice. 2.1 Consumers do not yet feel fully confident about shopping on the Internet. Recently conducted surveys suggest that this lack of confidence is by no means unjustified. Visa International reported in March 1999 that Internet transactions account for 2 per cent of its overall business but generate 50 per cent of all credit card disputes.
Information is inadequate.
For example, delivery times were indicated for 50.6 per cent of transactions and in only 39.6 per cent of cases the deadline for returning goods. In 79.5 per cent of 273 credit card transactions, suppliers did not provide consumers with any information on data protection, security or encryption. The most widely used payment method was credit cards but in 72.3 per cent of cases accounts were debited before goods were delivered, 18.6 per cent of goods did not arrive at all and only 57.5 per cent were delivered within two weeks. For cross-border purchases, additional charges were very high. The expectations of consumers who shop electronically are no different from those making a conventional purchase.