Is Europe on the right track to becoming ready for E-Commerce? How effective is recent regulation?

Master's Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Law - Media Multimedia Law Copyright grade: first distinction (mit Auszeic University of Wales Aberystwyth course: LL.M. Programm language: English abstract: This Dissertation aims to assess the effectiveness and suitability of European regulation in respect to E-Commerce. Taking the European 'Lisbon Strategy' as set out in 2000 as a starting point this paper examines whether Europe is on the right track to becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy (...) by 2010. Hereby the scope of this paper is limited to E-Commerce only as one essential part of a 'knowledge-based economy' and an 'e-ready' Europe. After outlining the special nature of E-Commerce the rationale behind regulation and the historical background of European regulation in this field this paper concentrates on four issues where the EU has become active in regulating E-Commerce namely the essential prerequisite of an existing 'e-infrastructure' e-signatures privacy and consumer protection. The European approach to each of these issues is assessed to reveal its strengths and weaknesses. Moreover this European way of regulating E-Commerce is then compared with other regulative attempts. Hereby special attention is paid to the US approach to regulating E-Commerce which is mostly based on self-regulation.Thus this paper comes to the conclusion that Europe is on the right track to becoming 'e-ready' in respect to E-Commerce. Basic regulatory decisions have the potential to lead in the right direction although they do not always provide the most effective solution.Often European Directives do not reach far enough and are outdated. Thus they do not address E-Commerce sufficiently give too much discretion to the Member States and leave prevalent gaps or do not interoperate properly.Therefore the European regulation on E-Commerce needs some revision and has to take some brave and innovative steps to establis