 Business sets its own rules
for trustworthy digital transactions
Paris, 6 November 1997 - The International Chamber
of Commerce today issued guidelines for ensuring trustworthy digital transactions
over the Internet, marking a crucial step forward in business self-regulation
of electronic commerce. They are being published immediately on the ICC's Web
site.
The guidelines - drawn up by experts from leading Internet software providers,
the legal profession, certification authorities and commercial banks - fill
a legal vacuum. The ICC is the foremost business self-regulatory body, whose
rules and standards govern the conduct of trade and are accepted throughout
the world.
Known as GUIDEC, standing for General Usage in International Digitally
Ensured Commerce, the guidelines take their place alongside the ICC's Uniform
Customs and Practices for Documentary Credits, Incoterms and other ICC rules
and definitions that are used in countless thousands of transactions throughout
the world every day.
GUIDEC was launched at an international ICC conference, "The World Business
Agenda for Electronic Commerce", which is being attended by Ira Magaziner,
Special Assistant to President Clinton, ministers from Singapore and Germany,
and representatives of major information technology users and providers.
David Meynell, Head of Trade Finance, Deutsche Bank AG, London, and a member
of the experts' group that devised the guidelines, said: "Without cast-iron
authentication of electronic transactions, the huge market offered by the Internet
will never reach its full potential. We now have for the first time a standard
that will provide the trust that is essential to the conduct of business over
open networks."
The guidelines establish procedures for what is termed "ensuring"
messages to certify transactions so that the uncertainties of dealing with a
partner who appears only as an electronic impulse on the Internet can be overcome.
They will be updated as digital technology develops.
GUIDEC governs the use of public key cryptography for digi
tal signatures and
the role of a trusted third party - called a certifier - in establishing that
holders of public keys are who they purport to be.
ICC Secretary General Maria Livanos Cattaui commented: "The ICC's authority
as rule maker for paper-based trade goes back more than seven decades. The rules
are effective because banks and traders accept and abide by them voluntarily.
We now offer to world business a set of detailed guidelines that will help to
cement the trust in business transactions over open networks that is absolutely
essential if the Internet is to fulfil its promise as a universal marketplace
accessible to all."
The guidelines are the first product of a multi-disciplinary task force, covering
all business sectors, which is working on a self-regulatory framework for business
practice in the digital age. They were drafted by a working group headed by
London notary William Kennair.
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