Expert Meeting on Cyberlaws and Regulations for Enhancing E-commerce, Including Case Studies and Lessons Learned

Online transactions are of growing importance to Governments, enterprises and consumers in most parts of the world.

While greater reliance on electronic commerce (e-commerce) creates significant opportunities, a lack of security and trust remains a critical barrier to such transactions.   Online fraud and data breaches are growing concerns for both consumers and enterprises, requiring adequate legal and regulatory responses at national and international levels.

Developing countries lag behind in the development of relevant cyberlaws and cross-border e-commerce is hampered by variations between existing laws and regulations in different countries.

This Expert Meeting will serve as a platform that enables countries to review their legal frameworks, share experiences and learn from each other.

It will present the findings of the first ever global mapping of laws in the areas of e-transactions, consumer protection, data protection and cybercrime.

The meeting will review challenges facing policy and lawmakers as well as the private sector in countries at all levels of development. It will offer an opportunity for regional organizations, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the East African Community, the Economic Community of West African States, the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System and the Latin American Integration Association to explore scope for collaboration with regard to the harmonization of legal frameworks that can support domestic and cross-border e-commerce.

Interactive sessions will feature leading legal and industry experts, government officials, representatives from regional and international institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations.

The expected outcome is the identification of best practices concerning cyberlaws as well as recommendations on ways to enable regulatory frameworks for enhancing e-commerce. It will link to other processes related to e-commerce, such as those under the auspices of the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the United Nations.

The Expert Meeting is organized by UNCTAD, which has supported over 60 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean in preparing and/or adopting cyberlaws and regulations and through capacity-building exercises.