Building trust in e-commerce in China: Is the Electronic Signature Law enough?

摘要

The Internet is a unique forum for conducting business. It can remarkably facilitate business transactions, but can also introduce uncertainties into business transactions. Trust plays a critical role in e-commerce. The experience of developed countries demonstrates that trust in e-commerce can effectively be established through the application of technology, privately and publicly provided mechanisms. These elements will cooperate with and complement on another, rather than substitute for one another.; In order to foster e-commerce, China has invested a great deal of effort in technological infrastructure. However, the lack of privately provided institutions and the long absence of relevant law in this area have seriously thwarted this commitment. Although the enactment of the Electronic Signature Law is an important step forward, more actions are required to combine the forces of law, technology and private bodies in order to create a trusted online environment for e-commerce in China.