Protecting the UK’s e-shoppers from online scams is the focus of a long-term strategy launched for consultation by the Office of Fair Trading this week.

The strategy outlines three action areas for protecting consumers while driving competition and economic growth in online markets. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) suggests that it could, with other agencies, industry and consumers, work to:

• Promote business compliance by improving the effectiveness of guidance, facilitating industry-led solutions to new problems and sharing intelligence.
• Develop effective enforcement through working with businesses and other enforcers, developing further enforcement capacity and focusing on areas where enforcement has the most impact. 
• Empower consumers by explaining their rights and the benefits of transacting online, helping them become more Internet-savvy and providing them with the tools to fix problems they may encounter.
• The strategy identifies potential measures to promote protection, including clarifying the levels of protection available for consumer-to-consumer sales, working with agencies to reduce spam, developing low-cost solutions for checking non-compliant websites and possible strengthening of payments systems for online purchases.

Noah Curthoys, OFT director of strategy, said: "This strategy will help drive competition and growth by using more focused methods to protect consumers and build trust. The OFT is seeking to facilitate industry-led solutions to emerging problems, respond effectively to rapid change, increase the capability and effectiveness of enforcement and empower consumers. This will ensure the UK is one of the global leaders in online enforcement."

The strategy also identifies five underlying principles in tackling online consumer protection:

• Ensuring consumers receive consistent levels of protection online and offline
• Intervening only when market-based solutions do not exist or are failing
• Enabling industry or voluntary organisations and consumers to participate in improving consumer protection 
• Supporting actions that build and maintain trust in online markets 
• Framing work within international initiatives (such as the EU Digital Strategy) and guidance (such as the OECD guidelines on e-commerce) given the global nature of the Internet.

Submissions by interested parties should be made to: eprotection@oft.gsi.gov.uk