TRUSTMARKS

Analysis and definition of common characteristics of trustmarks and web seals in the European Union ("Trustmarks in the e-commerce market and the conditions for their success"), European Commission DG Health and Consumer Protection funded project, coordinated by the ECP.NL - het platform voor eNederland.

The purpose of this research was to obtain an analysis of the e-commerce market from the perspective of trustmark schemes. Based on the selection of a number of European trustmark schemes, this research notably delivers:
- a business and consumer analysis: this analysis zooms in on the aspects of business and consumer acceptance, brand value and consumer experience;
- a commercial viability analysis: for the purpose of this analysis, the trustmark scheme business models were assessed from an organisational and financial perspective.
- a legal analysis: this analysis concerns a benchmark on trustmark schemes based on legal criteria that stem from sources of hard law and soft law.

For the purpose of the legal assessment, the CRID follows a global approach: to develop a model of trust that describes what legal factors affect the quality of a trustmark scheme, the legal analysis is not limited to a single benchmarking of the content of the selected trustmark schemes' codes of conduct. Instead, the research goes further in adopting a more global perspective and covering the main aspects of this type of services. In this regards, the benchmark is based on the different phases of the trustmark scheme's life cycle: elaboration of the trustmark scheme, information on the trustmark scheme, participation in the trustmark scheme, code of conduct, proactive monitoring, complaints procedure, enforcement and relations with protagonists.