Brussels, 18/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - European consumers have a "reasonable" level of confidence in electronic payment transactions, according to the results of a study undertaken for the European Commission, which were published by the latter on Thursday. . Finnish consumers show the highest level of confidence, followed by the Dutch and Swedish. Greek and Portuguese consumers are among the most distrustful of the Europeans interviewed in this study. Main reasons for worries were: security (30%), fraud (25%), protecting private life (17%).
According to the authors of the study, this involves a question of perception above all. Measures of security being set up and the consequences of fraud being felt by companies and not consumes. Nevertheless there is a large range of technologies for payments that allow for fraud to be limited, traditional payment by credit card remains dominant.
Consumer associations that participated in the study underlined the need for clarifying the question of liability, role and obligations of each party in an electronic transaction when security problems arise.
The study also sought to analyse the facility access to information on security of payment on 600 internet sites and the clarity of language used. Consumers are overall, better informed with regard to Internet banking: 83 % of e-banking sites analysed provided clear information with. But only 55 % of e-commerce sites were clear with their security information. 100 % scores for Denmark, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden., according to the study's authors for e-banking. Only 26 % of the e-commerce sites surveyed made security information easy to find within the site. 47 % of French sites did so, making them the best performers in this respect. Austrian sites came off worst with only 6 %. Despite progress in electronic transaction Frits Bolkestein, Internal Market Commissioner, said: " E-commerce has massive potential to boost Europe's economy. Although big advances continue to be made concerning the security of electronic payments, that is not enough on its own. Consumers need to be convinced that electronic payments are "no hassle". The Commissioner pointed out that the Commission is expected to present a communication on the setting up of a single payment in the EU, in October or November (see EUROPE yesterday p 17).