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UNCTAD [to 28 March 2015]
http://unctad.org/en/Pages/AllPressRelease.aspx

UNCTAD designs business-to-consumer electronic-commerce index
E-commerce finally taking off in developing countries
UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/2015/003
Geneva, Switzerland, (24 March 2015)
Small European countries top the ranking of 130 economies according to their readiness for business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, a new UNCTAD study shows. According to a new UNCTAD B2C E-commerce Index included in the study, the highest e-commerce readiness is found in Luxembourg, Norway and Finland.

Among developing and emerging economies, the front-runners are all in East Asia, namely the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong (China) and Singapore (see table). Meanwhile, in terms of actual levels of online shopping, countries with large populations – such as Brazil, China and the Russian Federation – are performing better than predicted, suggesting that large markets facilitate e-commerce.

The Information Economy Report 20151, subtitled “Unlocking the Potential of E-commerce for Developing Countries”, was released on 24 March. Its B2C E-commerce Index draws on data on Internet use, secure servers, credit card penetration and postal delivery. Assessing e commerce readiness can serve as a first step towards formulating a national e-commerce strategy.
:: Full report: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ier2015_en.pdf
:: Overview: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ier2015overview_en.pdf

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Global mapping of cyberlaws reveals significant gaps despite progress
UNCTAD/PRESS/PR/2015/004
Geneva, Switzerland, (24 March 2015)
As growing concerns over cybercrime affect the willingness of both buyers and sellers to make transactions online, new UNCTAD research shows that the enactment of laws that facilitate security and trust in online transactions varies considerably across the world, with significant gaps in many developing countries.

The findings are included in UNCTAD’s Information Economy Report 2015: Unlocking the Potential of E-commerce for Developing Countries1, which was released on 24 March….

…The UNCTAD report underlines that compatibility and interoperability between different legal systems are essential to facilitate cross-border e-commerce. Even in developed regions with a certain degree of legal harmonization, different requirements set in national laws may hamper such transactions, and the need to align laws with international legal instruments remains.
Several Governments need to allocate sufficient resources to develop cyberlaws, while the next challenge they face is to enforce such laws, both domestically and in regard to cross-border transactions.

In addition, the UNCTAD report says, security and trust are fundamental aspects for creating an environment conducive to electronic commerce. An increased incidence of online fraud and of data breaches are growing concerns, requiring adequate legal responses at the national and international levels. The UNCTAD report presents a new global map of cyberlegislation in four areas: cybercrime, e-transactions, consumer protection, and privacy and data protection. It shows that the adoption of such laws is generally high in developed countries, but highly inadequate in many other parts of the world.

The share of countries that have adopted a law is typically highest for e-transactions and lowest for the protection of online consumers (see table). But patterns vary by region. For example, in Central America, seven out of eight countries have consumer protection legislation in place, but more than half of the countries lack laws related to data protection and cybercrime. The subregion with the weakest coverage of e-commerce legislation is Central Africa, where only two out of nine countries have laws on e-transactions, online consumer protection and data protection, and only one country has adopted cybercrime legislation…

:: UNCTAD’s global mapping of cyberlaws available online: unctad.org/cyberlawtracker.
:: Full report: http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/ier2015_en.pdf