Brussels, 20/04/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Commissioner responsible for Information Society, Erkki Liikanen, recently reiterated the guidelines of the action aimed at ensuring the follow-up of the Lisbon Summit in this area. He called on the governments and companies to work together "and as soon as possible, as the competitors are not waiting." According to him the true e-commerce revolution is before all found in the business to business relations. It is in this area that 80% of e-commerce is concentrated and in the process of including the totality of the old and new economy. This attraction it justified by the fact that the fall in costs, according to studies by Goldman Sachs, would lead to an additional growth of 0.25% per year for the next ten years and the rapid opening up of new markets. The movement is such that, according to Andersen Consulting, 80% of managers will intensively use e-commerce by 2004. However, for Commissioner Liikanen, it is too late. He cited, as an example of the "aggressiveness of competitors," the case of General Electrics who gave itself 100 days to totally transform itself into a electronic company.
At another level, e-commerce "business to consumer" seems to the Commissioner to rather be a development rather than a revolution. Moreover it is the United States due to their Single Currency, their homogenous market and a distance selling tradition. The Commission feels that everything must be done to favour consumer confidence to gain easier access as well as a on-line conflict resolution system. This type of commerce is in the process of developing in the banking sector, travel agencies, tourism, computer equipment, books and compact disks. For Liikanen, it is urgent to complete the implementation of the legal framework of the internal market, especially for electronic signatures, the "e-commerce" Directive, that on copyright and laws on the jurisdiction and applicable laws. According to him, Europe must not loose sight of the advantages it has in the sector of mobile commerce, the second generation of e-commerce and it should take advantage of its position a leaders in mobile communications.