전자상거래 활성화와 소비자 보호

The evolution of virtual shopping on the World Wide Web gives rise to new and complex consumer protection issues. The conventional elements of jurisdiction over consumer protection are hard to execute in the Internet realm. Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) as a general concept includes “any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct physical contact.” These types of business transactions are usually separated into two categories: business-to-business transactions and business-to-consumer transactions. This Note is principally concerned with transactions between businesses and consumers(B2C) although open market services and specified digital contents services such as VOD(video on demand) services has been growing recent years. This Note is also to discuss the growing concerns consumers and businesses face as they interact online and examine the question of how best to protect consumers, and to examine key concerns pertaining to consumer safety in the global electronic marketplace, including dispute resolution, business and marketing practices, enforcement, and privacy, and to summarize the various efforts and online initiatives that law enforcers and the private sector have executed worldwide.In Korea, the Act on Consumer Protection in E-Commerce provides several systems for safe transactions and consumer protection, such as cooling-off, on-line escrow, consumer damage compensation insurance, on-line authentification, essential information disclosure and libility of intermediary telemarketers. Those systems were dedicated to promote safe transactions and consumer protection; however, in several aspects, they posed legal and economic problems and thus need some improvement. With all the results of this Note, further research and investigation should be followed for the safe and deairable legal and economic climate in the E-Commerce land.