Kiwis Back e-Complaints Site
New Zealand is putting its governmental weight behind a website launched in the US this week which enables consumers to make complaints about web retailers in other countries.
Acting Consumer Affairs minister and deputy prime minister Jim Anderton says the site is a major step toward supporting consumer rights. "Not only can customers make complaints but using the new site New Zealanders can find out about the laws in other countries and their complaints can be passed to law enforcement agencies," he says.
The new web site is being launched by the International Marketing Supervision Network at with 12 countries participating including Sweden, Australia, the USA, UK, and Korea.
"This is a ground-breaking initiative as up until now the borderless nature of internet shopping has frustrated both consumers and governments. This will mean that if something goes wrong, consumers have a single complaint point. It will greatly improve the ability of international enforcement agencies to address cross-border internet fraud and deception, and where appropriate will enable them to bring faster, better cases against those who break the law, says Mr Anderton.
The move compliments the efforts of the new eMarketing Standards Authority and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs which recently released guidelines to protect the rights of customers of web retailers in New Zealand.
The Ministry of Consumer Affairs monitors New Zealand sites as part of internet sweeps and has guidelines as to what information should be on New Zealand based websites.
The eMarketing Standards Authority also has a code which all members of the Advertising Standards Authority and the Direct Marketing Association should comply with.
Reprinted from nz.internet.com.
