Purchasing goods on Internet is safe, experts say

JAKARTA (JP): People should not be worried about purchasing goods on the Internet because it is just as safe and convenient as shopping at nearby malls, according to e-commerce experts.

Visa International's Asia Pacific market development manager for e-commerce, John Bauer, said here on Wednesday that customers, however, should be extra careful in examining terms and conditions of the transactions involved.

"Merchants involved in e-commerce will naturally make sure that all the data obtained from customers, especially credit card and personal information, are properly encrypted to avoid data abuse by mischievous officials or any third parties. Otherwise, they will lose clients to competitors that can provide better security," he told a seminar on e-commerce.

Bauer said e-commerce customers must also be aware that purchasing goods from overseas merchants would mean that they had to deal with the law and regulations applied in the merchants' origin countries, not theirs.

Paul Fitzgerald, a legal expert on e-commerce from Singapore- based law firm Arthur Loke, Bernard, Rada & Lee, said the most legal cases the company had encountered so far were on intellectual copyright abuse and mischievous hackers.

"Legal suits filed by unsatisfied customers or sellers over purchases made on e-commerce are rarely found. The cases are mostly filed by one company against another over alleged abuse of intellectual copyright or illegal access to its data files," he said.

He said unsatisfied customers and merchants could still file a legal suit against each other over alleged trickery or breaches of transaction contracts, despite the fact that cyber law did not exist in many countries.

Singapore was among the few countries that had already included legal settlement on e-commerce business in its transaction laws, he said.

Fitzgerald said it would be much better for a country to have regulations providing guidelines, if not control, on the practice of e-commerce in order to assure a just and proper settlement for any problems possibly brought up by any parties.

He acknowledged, however, that the lack of regulations or legal assurance on e-commerce practices would not necessarily stop companies from selling on the Internet.

"E-commerce has become a trend. Companies will still go into e-business because they simply do not want to be left behind by competitors," he added.

The president of local e-commerce service provider PT Secura Agradi, Andy B. Sutedja, agreed with Fitzgerald, saying that more companies would turn to e-commerce because it offered great business opportunities and required only a reasonable investment to start.

"A company can start its e-commerce business with an overall investment of around US$25,000," he said.

He said e-commerce would be the preferred business and investment tool of the future.

Many local companies had recently gone online, at least for internal operations or promotional purposes, he said without mentioning a figure.

The U.S.-based telecoms and IT research firm, International Data Corporation (IDC), projected e-commerce would grow faster this year in Indonesia, following the country's gradual economic recovery.

IDC estimated the number of Internet users in Indonesia who make purchases through e-commerce would grow from approximately 70,000 in 2000 to 600,000 by 2003. (cst)