B2B Internet Trading Platforms - EDIS

ANNEX III
Open consultation on “Trust barriers for B2B e-marketplaces”: The main results
The Communication on the impact of the e-economy on EU enterprises has identified the “need to
promote fair trade in B2B, in particular through the reinforcement of self-regulation mechanisms”. As
a first step for the follow-up of the Communication, Directorate General Enterprise has launched, in
the beginning of March, an open consultation on “trust barriers for B2B e-marketplaces”. The
objective of the consultation was to identify potential trust barriers, in particular for the participation
of SMEs in B2B e-marketplaces. The consultation has been completed at the end of April. The main
results are presented in this paper.
1. THE CONSULTATION
The consultation was divided into three questionnaires, addressed to e-marketplace operators,
associations/chambers of commerce/companies and trust operators/e-business platforms.
– The questionnaire addressed to associations/chambers of commerce and companies was
aiming to provide feedback from the business community on the most important trust
barriers for the use of e-marketplaces for buying and selling on-line.
– The questionnaire addressed to e-marketplaces was aiming to provide information about the
current practices of e-marketplace operators, in particular with respect to the information
they provide on e-marketplace web sites and the information they require from participating
companies to disclose.
– The questionnaire addressed to trust operators and e-business platforms was aiming to
provide feedback on the experience of these groups as the regards the most important trust
barriers.
Each one of the questionnaires was structured as follows: Part I was dealing with the identification of
the stakeholders: country of establishment, sector of activity, type of the e-marketplace and number of
employees in the case of companies.
Part II was addressing the following questions: (a) the issue of codes of conduct and in particular: the
identification of existing codes of conduct or guidelines for B2B e-marketplaces, the potential role of
codes of conduct as a tool to enhance trust in B2B electronic transactions, as perceived by
stakeholders, the potential role of the Commission in promoting trust in B2B, as perceived by
stakeholders, in particular the possibility to establish a group of stakeholders to discuss best practice in
building trust and the potential interest of stakeholders in participating in such as group; (b) the
potential trust barriers for B2B e-marketplaces, and in particular: the most important trust barriers for
the use of e-marketplaces, both for online purchasing and online selling purposes, as perceived by
companies and trust operators/e-business platforms and the business practices followed by e-
marketplace operators.
2. THE MAIN RESULTS OF THE CONSULTATION
In response to the 3 questionnaires, 103 answers have been received. The answers came from
associations/chambers of commerce/companies (62 %), e-marketplaces operators (27 %) and trust
operators/e-business platforms (11 %). In addition, one letter was received by a Chamber of
Commerce, expressing general comments on the overall initiative and in particular on the role of the
Commission in the development of codes of conduct.
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