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5 Consumer protection in the online world 5.1 Introduction This chapter is aimed at examining the changing usage patterns of consumers and what the local and globalised ICT consumers of digital services expect in terms of protection when they engage in various types of activities online. It examines the need for revised regulatory frameworks and explores the various options available, such as co-regulation and self-regulation, based on country experiences from around the world. It also discusses the need for greater collaboration and cooperation at the regional and international levels. This chapter complements a previous study, Regulation and Consumer Protection in a Converging Environment, which was released by ITU in 2013.1 The discussion starts by looking at consumer protection in the online world. It describes the needs and concerns of digital consumers when they engage in the most common forms of online activities: searching the Internet, shopping, making payments, consuming music and video, gaming and using apps, using social media and cloud services.The analysis identifies a number of cross-cutting regulatory issues that need to be addressed by policy-makers, regulators2 and industry to ensure that digital consumers are effectively protected, including:• privacy • security • fighting illegal and harmful content • copyright • net neutrality • payments • consumer rights and trust • delivery • consumer redress and education It also highlights some of the approaches that have been taken around the world to protect consumers, and describes some recent attempts to address specifically the conduct of new market players, such as search engine, cloud and application service providers.5.2 Setting the scene 5.2.1 Rapid growth It is now clear that in many regions of the world, consumers have a strong online presence for many aspects of their lives (working, socialising, communicating, consuming, etc.) and this trend is set to continue. A recent OECD report3 highlights that e-commerce has been growing steadily since it first emerged in the mid-1990s with the establishment of companies like Amazon and eBay. From 2004 to 2010, e-sales grew from 9 to 14 per cent of the turnover of non-financial enterprises in the European Union, and from 10 to 16 per cent in the United States. The report also highlights, however, that growth is uneven among countries and regions of the world, and that:• B2B sales dominate in terms of value of transactions.E-commerce is dominated by business-to-business (B2B) sales, with around 90% of the value of e-commerce transactions coming from B2B. • B2C transactions growing faster than other segments. The remaining 10 per cent of transactions are a combination of business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-government (B2G) and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) activities. Recently, B2C transactions have been growing faster than other segments, but from a lower base. Figures from EMOTA, the European Distance Selling Association, show that growth is fastest in the Asia-Pacific region (with a 30 per cent increase between 2009 and 2013).4 Authors: Michèle Ledger, Javier Huerta Bravo, and James Thomson, Senior ICT Experts, Cullen International Trends in Telecommunicaiton Reform 2015 119