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Updated Sunday, October 4, 2009 11:30 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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How much policing is needed on the Internet?

The U.S. computer giant Dell was fined NT$1 million by Taipei City consumer protection authorities in July for mishandling two glitches that significantly cut the price of its products. The company later offered a one-year 20 percent discount to affected customers.

Two months later, the household goods chain store HOLA handed out NT$2.6 million worth of coupons in compensation for a glitch (HOLA claim it was hacked) that had the company selling 6.4 billion NT$1,000 coupons for NT$0, and thus fueled frantic buying by consumers.

These two cases received wide media coverage mostly for the unusual magnitude of the erroneous price cut and the frenzied spread of the news of the “great bargain” online, another testament to the power of the Web.

It is not the capability of the Internet, but rather its shortcomings, that calls for online law enforcement to protect both consumers and businesses.

Consumers seem to have nothing to lose, even if the companies do not or cannot honor the mispriced deals, they stand to gain from the compensation for merely placing online orders.

However, as a Consumers' Foundation official pointed out, some businesses might deliberately use mispriced products to attract people and thereby obtain their personal information. Low-profile businesses are more prone to such practices. They can simply call the deals off later as their pricing error won't get as much heat as those by big names like Dell and HOLA.

Companies, on the other hand, also need protection from hackers and from their inadequate Web site management. No shopkeeper leaves his goods unguarded. Because online stores are open 24/7 and HOLA's glitch happened on a weekend at midnight, it took HOLA a day to realize they were giving out cash coupons for free.

The government should commence setting standards on the design, basic information, fool-proof mechanisms and compensation policies for virtual businesses. Due to the complexity of the Internet and its tendency to constantly evolve, a comprehensive standard would take time to make.

In the meantime, Taiwan has to mind the lesson of Jingjing and Chacha; it is important to have the presence of the law felt in the virtual world.

Just don't do it by putting up cartoon mascots.

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Comments

October 4, 2009 citi2gate2@

Pretending to carry the interest of "business and consumers" at heart, while all you actually want to see is the blocking out of websites criticizing the government, as in the case in China. Poor journalistic cowards.