BBBOnline to Partner With Asian Organizations to Promote Safe Global e-commerce; Strategic Agreements Announced at APEC Meeting in Shanghai.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

ARLINGTON, Va. & SHANGHAI, China--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2001

Two major agreements signed by BBBOnLine with leading business and consumer organizations in China, Japan and Korea will significantly expand the promotion of safe global e-commerce, and broaden efforts to encourage consumers and businesses on different continents to engage in cross border e-commerce.

The Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were announced today in Shanghai as leaders from Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies and CEOs of leading businesses convened for the ninth APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the 13th APEC Ministerial Conference.

The Asia Pac region now accounts for 22% of the world's Internet population, only slightly less than Europe, Middle East, Africa combined with 27%. While US/Canada still remains the largest region in terms of current Internet users, with 40% of the world's Internet population, Asia Pac is the fastest growing of all regions.

Internet usage and online commercial transactions in the Asia Pac region are expected to continue accelerating. Not including Japan or Australia, the Internet population is expected to reach 96 million by 2004.

The two Asian-Pacific MOUs pledge the parties to cooperate in developing: compatible complaint resolution procedures and technologies; an international trustmark that would be co-branded with the local organization's own trustmark; and, international standards for online business practices that each organization's local code would be required to meet or exceed.

It is anticipated that the international code will look similar to the BBB Code of Online Business Practices, which covers areas such as advertising, sales and fulfillment practices, privacy notices, and advertising to children.

"Globally there has been an increase of 50% in the proportion of Internet users that shop online compared to last year in 2000(1), and these agreements therefore represent significant milestones in the movement to create international trust initiatives for e-commerce. In concert with the theme of cooperation for this week's APEC meeting, BBBOnLine is joining with like-minded Asian organizations in an unprecedented show of cooperation to increase consumer trust and confidence online at a global level so that cross-border e-commerce may flourish," said Ken Hunter, President of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) and BBBOnLine.

The partnerships have five goals:

-- achieve consistent and high e-business standards unlikely to be obtained
through differing government regulations;

-- provide practical and effective cross-border remedies for e-consumers that
are often not possible through the court systems;

-- encourage safe e-commerce by utilizing in different countries the same
recognizable consumer protection trustmark, along with the locally known marks;


-- bridge a growing commercial "digital divide" by making it feasible for small
and medium businesses without brand recognition that commit to the
international standards to compete in a international e-commerce marketplace;
and

-- work towards joining a larger online trust alliance that will be global in
reach.

One of BBBOnLine MOUs is with the Guangdong Consumer Council (GDCC) of China. GDCC, which is preparing to bring its complaint resolution program and a new trustmark program online, will model its program after BBBOnLine's Reliability trustmark program.

The national China Consumer Council is supportive of the GDCC-BBBOnLine agreement and has stated that it intends to use GDCC's experience as a model for other consumer councils in China.

Almost a quarter of the total population in China's three major provinces -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou -- is now online (23%, up from 16% in 2000). Currently 6% of Internet users shop online, with 52% of users saying they believe that large scale e-commerce will be realized in China within the next three years(2).

The second MOU is between BBBOnLine, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Japan Direct Marketing Association and the Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce. This agreement was first announced at September's Global Business Dialogue for Electronic Commerce (GBDe) meeting in Tokyo.

Japan's Electronic Commerce Promotion Council, the e-commerce research arm of Japan's Ministry of Trade, was instrumental in bringing the parties together.

Japan has one of the highest percentages of Internet users to total population worldwide. With 68% of its population online (compared with 57% in the U.S.A.), and with 17% of Internet users shopping online, they are above average worldwide(3).

And with 51% of its population now online (up from 34% last year and now the fourth largest Internet population in the world), Korea has emerged as a dominant Internet market in Asia. 19% of Internet users in Korea (equal to 10% of its total population) shop online.(4)

Hewlett Packard, a founding sponsor of BBBOnLine and a member of BBBOnLine's Leadership Circle, played an important role in bringing the parties together and highlighted BBBOnLine's newest international initiatives at the APEC meeting.

"Hewlett Packard strongly supports business self-regulation efforts to build international trust and confidence online, and BBBOnLine's experience and expertise is proving to be of great value in this arena. The Better Business Bureau enjoys the trust and respect of consumers, businesses and regulators alike and that's a powerful combination in any country," said Jim Whittaker, Director, International Public Policy, Hewlett Packard.

The parties to these MOUs have made a significant commitment to work towards joining a larger Global Online Trust Alliance that was announced by BBBOnLine and two leading European business organizations -- Eurochambres and the Federation of European Direct Marketing -- in Madrid, Spain this spring.

The Trans-Atlantic MOU anticipated today's announcements in its commitment to work towards establishing a much broader program that would include like-minded organizations from around the globe to harness the power of voluntary self-regulation to strengthen safe, successful e-commerce.

BBBOnLine is continuing discussions with other Asian and Latin American organizations to expand the developing international Alliance. The various agreements are all supported by the relevant government agencies.

About BBBOnLine (www.bbbonline.org)

BBBOnLine brings the Better Business Bureau system's 89 years of experience in consumer protection and business self-regulation to e-commerce.

Guided by its mission to promote consumer trust on the Internet, and working in concert with the 144 local BBBs in the United States and Canada, BBBOnLine encourages sound and ethical online business practices through the BBB Code of Online Business Practices (www.bbbonline.org/code/index.asp), and the BBBOnLine Reliability and Privacy Programs.

Three hundred national and global corporations and 270,000 businesses at the grass-roots level support the Better Business Bureau system. More than 10,000 businesses have qualified to display the BBBOnLine Reliability Seal and 872 web sites have earned the BBBOnLine Privacy Seal.

About Guangdong Consumer Council (http://www.cc315.org/)

A part of a national network of consumer councils in China called, Guangdong Consumer Council operates the largest "315" or provincial consumer council program ("GD-315"). The GD 315 program, established in 1988 by the Guangdong province, is a consumer complaint resolution, product safety and reliability, and consumer education program.

Twenty-two city councils, 117 county councils and more than 1,500 consumer council branches have been established.

About JCCI & JADMA (http://mark.cin.or.jp/ http://www.jadma.org/ost/index.html)

JCCI, the umbrella organization for Japan's chambers of commerce, and JADMA, the umbrella organization for Japan's direct marketing associations, together operate an online trustmark program called Online Shopping Trust.

The program requires participants to adhere to a code of online business practices that was developed by the Electronic Promotion Council (the e-commerce research arm of Japan's Ministry of Trade). Online Shopping Trust has 540 participants and its code can be found at http://www.jadma.org/e_page/bt_9909.htm.

JCCI is the central organization to which all local chambers of commerce belong. As an opinion leader in economic circles, JCCI represents the various local chambers in presenting their concerns and suggestions to the government and other bodies, and at the same time plays a role in efforts to implement them.

JCCI also has a central position in the dissemination of information concerning government policies and programs, and the promotion of nationwide projects. Today, virtually all of Japan's major cities have chambers of commerce, which numbered 526 in 2001. Chambers of commerce form a large-scale nationwide organization with 1.64 million members.

The Japan Direct Marketing Association is the official representative body of the direct marketing industry in Japan, operating as a non-profit organization with the support of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

The association was founded in October 1983, to promote fair trading and a code of commercial ethics within the direct marketing industry, and to act as the central body to coordinate self-regulations within the industry as required under the 1989 revision of the Door-to-door Sales Law. JADMA has 340 members.

About KIEC (www.KIEC.or.kr/)

The Korea Institute for Electronic Commerce (KIEC), a comprehensive policy research and promotional agency, was established under article 22 of the Basic Law on Electronic Commerce, to effectively and systematically pursue policies supporting electronic commerce.

Its main activities include the eTrust mark, the e-Business Prizes and other programs to promote electronic commerce; building trust and infrastructure for electronic commerce; developing and disseminating standards for growing B2B e-commerce; fostering expert human resources and consulting in the area of e-commerce and participating in international activities for standardization and increase of cooperation.

The eTrust mark currently has 112 participants.

About Eurochambres (www.eurochambres.be)

Eurochambres, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Brussels. Through its member organizations, the association represents 1,300 Chambers of Commerce and their 14 million member enterprises in 34 countries.

This includes all European Union countries, all accession countries, EFTA, Russia, and several countries in the Mediterranean. Many European Chambers of Commerce and Industry offer arbitration, mediation and conciliation services - both in B2B and B2C disputes.

About FEDMA (www.fedma.org)

FEDMA is the European Federation for the direct/interactive marketing business dedicated to representing direct marketing in all its forms.

FEDMA's objective is to protect and promote the European direct marketing business by creating, through representation, self-regulation and information, acceptance and confidence in direct marketing within a healthy commercial and legislative environment in which the sector can profitably operate and develop.

FEDMA has more than 350 direct members and represents more than 10,000 companies indirectly through its national DMA members. The FEDMA code of conduct can be found at www.fedma.org/img/db/Code_conduct_for_e-commerce.pdf.

1. TNS Interactive - Global eCommerce Report - June 2001

2. TNS Interactive - Global eCommerce Report - June 2001

3. TNS Interactive - Global eCommerce Report - June 2001

4. Nielson/NetRatings Global Internet Index for Jan 2001