BBBOnLine Receives $400,000 Award From Department of Commerce to Foster Efforts to Expand U.S. E-exports
Self-Regulation Project to Establish an International Trustmark for Online Businesses
Based on a Code of Conduct with Dispute Resolution Mechanisms
ARLINGTON, VA. (November 25, 2002) The Council of Better Business Bureaus and its Internet subsidiary BBBOnLine have received an award of $400,000 from the Department of Commerce to support their efforts in spearheading the establishment and development of the Global Trustmark Alliance (GTA). GTA will help expand the access of American businesses online to the international marketplace by increasing consumer confidence around the world in cross-border Internet transactions. The Alliance, a partnership between non-profit business and consumer associations and governments around the world, will be especially helpful to small and medium sized American businesses (SMEs) that particularly suffer from name recognition problems outside their local marketplaces.
In announcing the award to the Council (and additional awards to eight other organizations), Linda Conlin, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development, said, "These awards give businesses the jump start they need to export their products. This is another example of this Administration's commitment to expand trade, create jobs and help businesses succeed."
The GTA has a three pronged approach to building consumer confidence in cross-border internet transactions - development of an international code of online business practices for cross-border transactions; establishment of an out-of-court dispute resolution process for such transactions; and award of an international trustmark for online vendors that will inform consumers that the vendors are following the code and using the dispute resolution process. Surveys have repeatedly shown that the growth of e-commerce is hampered by consumer concerns over security, privacy, merchant reliability and the lack of adequate accessible means to resolve disputes, and that these concerns are even greater for cross-border transactions
Planning for GTA began with an agreement among BBBOnLine, the Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA), and Eurochambres, the association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, to build a worldwide trustmark alliance. The concept has since attracted substantial membership interest in Asia, the Americas and Europe. Initial members are likely to come from China [Consumer Association]; Korea [Institute for Electronic Commerce]; Japan [Japan DMA; Japan Chamber of Commerce]; Taiwan [Secure Online Shopping Association]; Singapore [ConmerceNet Asia], Chile [Santiago Chamber of Commerce], Europe [Eurochambres and FEDMA], and North America [BBB covering the U.S. and Canada].
Membership in GTA will be open to any qualified trustmark organization that agrees to incorporate the to-be-developed GTA code of online business practices and dispute resolution process in its local program and offer local merchants the opportunity to display the global GTA logo along with the organization's locally known logo.
Development of the new program will build on BBB's pioneering work in creating the first (and now the largest) of the Internet consumer trustmark programs and its expertise in operating these and other self-regulation programs in this country and Canada. It is expected that the GTA will be launched and that GTA trustmarks will appear on merchant web sites before the end of 2003.
About BBBOnLine
BBBOnLine (www.bbbonline.org) brings the Better Business Bureau system's 90 years of experience in consumer protection, dispute resolution and business self-regulation to e-commerce. Guided by its mission to promote consumer trust on the Internet, and working in concert with the 142 local BBBs in the United States and Canada, BBBOnLine encourages sound and ethical online business practices through its Privacy program, Reliability program and the BBB Code of Online Business Practices.
About the Council of Better Business Bureaus
The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) is the umbrella organization for 128 Better Business Bureaus (BBB) across the U.S. Through the national memberships of more than 350 leading edge companies and the network of member BBBs, the Council promotes the highest ethical relationship between businesses and the public through voluntary self-regulation, consumer and business education, and service excellence.
More Information:
For additional information about the international alliances or the Global Trustmark Alliance, see:
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