For most people, shopping is still a matter of wandering down the street or loading a cart in a shopping mall. Soon, that will change. Electronic commerce is growing fast and will soon bring people more choices. There will, however, be a cost: protecting the consumer from fraud will be harder. Many governments therefore want to extend high street regulations to the electronic world. But politicians would be wiser to see cyberspace as a basis for a new era of corporate self-regulation.
Consumers in rich countries have grown used to the idea that the government takes responsibility for everything from the stability of the banks to the safety of the drugs, or their rights to refund when goods are faulty. But governments cannot enforce national laws on businesses whose only presence in their country is on the screen. Other countries have regulators, but the rules of consumer protection differ, as does enforcement. Even where a clear right to compensation exists, the online catalogue customer in Tokyo, say, can hardly go to New York to extract a refund for a dud purchase.
One answer is for governments to cooperate more: to recognize each other’s rules. But that requires years of work and volumes of detailed rules. And plenty of countries have rules too fanciful for sober states to accept. There is, however, an alternative. Let the electronic businesses do the “regulation” themselves. They do, after all, have a self-interest in doing so.
In electronic commerce, a reputation for honest dealing will be a valuable competitive asset. Governments, too, may compete to be trusted. For instance, customers ordering medicines online may prefer to buy from the United States because they trust the rigorous screening of the Food and Drug Administration; or they may decide that the FDA’s rules are too strict, and buy from Switzerland instead.
Consumers will need to use their judgment. But precisely because the technology is new, electronic shoppers are likely for a while to be a lot more cautious than consumers of the normal sort---and the new technology will also make it easier for them to complain noisily when a company lets them down. In this way, at least, the advent of cyberspace may argue for fewer consumer protection laws, not more.
小題1:According to the author, what will be the best policy for electronic commerce?
A．Self – regulation by the business.B．Strict consumer protection laws.
C．Close international cooperation.D．Government protection.
小題2:In case an electronic shopper bought faulty goods from a foreign country, what could he do?
A．Refuse to pay for the purchase.B．Go to the seller and ask for a refund.
C．Appeal to consumer protection law.D．Complain about it on the Internet.
小題3:In the author’s view, businesses would place a high emphasis on honest dealing because in the electronic world .
A．international cooperation would be much more frequent
B．consumers could easily seek government protection
C．a good reputation is a great advantage in competition
D．it would be easy for consumers to complain
小題4:We can infer from the passage that in licensing new drugs the FDA in the United States is .
A．very quickB．very cautiousC．very slowD．rather careless
小題5:If a customer buys something that does not meet his expectation, what is the advantage of dealing through electronic commerce over the present normal one?
A．It will be easier for him to return the goods he is not satisfied with.
B．It will be easier for him to attain the refund from the seller.
C．It will be easier for him to get his complaints heard by other consumers.
D．It will be easier for him to complain about this to the government.
