A CRITICAL EXAMINATION ON CONSUMER PROTECTION IN ONLINE SHOPPING, DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING, AND LAWFUL PROTECTION BY - KAMALESWARY J P, MURUKESAN J P, RESHMA RENJITH & GAUTHAM A. B
A CRITICAL EXAMINATION ON CONSUMER PROTECTION IN
ONLINE SHOPPING, DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING, AND LAWFUL PROTECTION
AUTHORED BY - KAMALESWARY J P,
MURUKESAN
J P, RESHMA RENJITH & GAUTHAM A. B
ABSTRACT
Increasing consumer
awareness, empowerment, and independence to defend themselves, as well as
instilling a feeling of accountability in business actors to manage their
operations, are the primary goals of consumer legal protection. Online shopping
fraud by consumers is a frequent issue that coexists with other legal issues.
In compliance with the conditions set forth by the Parties regarding the Sale
of Goods, the Purchaser will pay the Vendor the Purchase Price for the Goods.
However, mass-market products usually don't live up to customer expectations or
the promised description. Customers and users need to be shielded from the
various online scams that could be carried out. The goal of consumer
protection, according to the Consumer Protection Act, is to give customers
legal certainty, security for benefits, and fairness and safety when they use
or consume goods or services.
INTRODUCTION
One definition of
advertising is "a unit of work for introducing and selling products to
mass media buyers." In the past, traditional media outlets including
print, radio, television, film, and outdoor advertising have been used to
spread advertising. To help with interactions between customers and businesses
in a social network, new forms of marketing have evolved with the advent of
digital infrastructures like the Internet. Customers are now more involved in
conversations between retailers and customers than ever before because to this
new medium and its evolution. As more people gain access to the Internet,
online shopping is growing in popularity. However, one major issue that comes
with online shopping is false or misleading advertising. There is no denying
that the Internet is having a greater and bigger impact on consumer purchases. This
is due to advertisements that appear to be one of the factors that attract consumers
to a product[1]. The amount of inaccurate or misleading
information and marketing that is available when making any kind of online
purchase is one of the main issues. Online impersonation is simpler than
offline impersonation, which makes it perfect for deceptive and unscrupulous
strategies. In fact, with online advertising growing at an exponential rate and
marketers having the capacity to alter the content of their ads at any time,
there is fear that consumers may be exposed to a variety of potentially
misleading promotions on the Internet. The novelty of online advertising and
marketing restrictions presents the law with a number of challenges regarding
the scope of consumer protection. This is because there are many challenges and
murky legal areas involved in bringing consumer protection laws intended for
more conventional types of advertising to the internet. Customers are
advocating for tight legal restrictions on unethical behaviour, on the one
hand. Providers and business owners, however, believed that a more
compassionate approach was required, one that depended on voluntary codes of
conduct. The connection between Indonesia's legal issues' complexity and
economic growth as well as information technology advancements. The quick rate
at which advances in information technology have resulted in socio-economic and
cultural upheavals has given rise to new judicial procedures incorporating
information technology. Information technology advancements have an impact on
people's lives; one example is the ease of internet buying. Therefore, in order
to safeguard the rights and obligations of all parties involved, it is
essential that online business transactions comply with legal standards.
PROTECTING CONSUMER PRIVACY IN ELECTRONIC MERCHANCE
Customers are more
vulnerable than sellers or companies while doing business online. Also referred
to as customers' rights, these are particularly weak in online transactions due
to the nature of e-commerce, particularly the fact that the buyer and seller
never truly meet, which can result in a number of problems. Customers who make
purchases online are protected legally by the Information Technology and
Electronic Transactions Law and the Consumer Protection Law. The Consumer
Protection Law was passed by the Indonesian government to protect consumers,
while the ITE Law offers protection to internet shoppers.
SECURITY OF CLIENTS' PERSONAL INFORMATION
The right to privacy is
the right of an individual, organization, or institution to exercise control
over the dissemination of information about itself [2]. Although
they haven't been expressed much in Indonesia, privacy concerns definitely
exist. Some countries, on the other hand, view privacy as an essential human
right. More than merely the freedom to keep one's business or personal concerns
to oneself, privacy also refers to the capacity to control how one's personal
information is shared with others, as well as the freedom from encroachment,
autonomy, and solitude. When something goes wrong in the area of e-commerce,
it's usually because someone misused information they had on members of their
organisation or a business's clients.
ONLINE REGISTRATION
Shopping and marketplace
websites usually require registration before allowing users to make purchases
or access all of the site's features. Typically, a website's registration form
requests the user's name, email address, physical address, city of residence,
username, password, gender, date of birth, income, and employment. Some
websites even request credit card information in order to complete a purchase.
Users and visitors to the website won't be able to fully utilise all of its
features if the aforementioned requirements aren't met. The problem is that
customers and website visitors will not be able to fully utilise all of the
site's features if the aforementioned requirements aren't met. Online companies
can typically utilise the collected information for advertising purposes and on
social media platforms to customise web application sites to the preferences of
users. ITE law ought to mandate that e-commerce websites that collect consumer
data reveal their data-gathering procedures. The definition and scope of
personal data adopted by the ITE Law are protective and comprehensive,
providing adequate legal protection for personal data. This allows individuals
who have been harmed due to unlawful use of their data to file a lawsuit for
damages. Any e-commerce website's privacy policy should cover the use of
cookies, the details of personal data collected, and protection for extremely
sensitive information like credit card numbers. Despite the fact that having a
privacy statement on their homepage would show prospective customers and
consumers that the website cares about protecting the privacy of their personal
information, many e-commerce sites, like rakitan.com, indo-lcd.com, and others,
neglect to do so.
CATEGORIES OF INTERNET PROMOTION
Thanks to the growth of
online advertising, marketers may now quickly connect with millions of
potential clients worldwide. Globally, the growth of online social media
platforms has affected consumers' information search, selection, sharing, and
evaluation processes as well as their assessment of ads. Social networks are
better than any other website in customising their content to specific
demographics because they have access to so much user data. Direct display ads
on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites enable
customers and potential customers to discuss the business in-depth with a
corporate representative or with friends. Reviews and testimonials posted by
users on social media platforms are also a form of social media advertising
because modern consumers frequently rely on the advice of other consumers. For
instance, "online reviews are another form of consumer information that is
playing an increasingly important role in both online and consumer markets,
helping shape consumers' product knowledge and purchasing decisions. Marketers
today use a wide variety of internet advertising strategies to get their
products and services in front of consumers." One's ability to be
persuaded to buy something depends in large part on how they understand an
online advertisement. But because of the heightened competition, business
owners are under greater pressure than ever to take decisive action, which has
resulted in a rise in internet marketing that misleads and confuses customers.
SLIMMER APPROACHES TO STOP DECEPTIVE OR FALSE
ADVERTISING
The main methods of soft
intervention to prevent deceptive and misleading advertising are educating the
public about known frauds, risks, and illegal schemes, and providing tools to
help them change their online behaviour. Higher educated consumers are less
likely to experience legal infractions. If such transactions can be prevented
in the first place, then harsh rules are not necessary. The ultimate outcome is
a decrease in consumer anxiety, time, and expenditure. The likelihood that
consumers will fall for false and deceptive web advertising would decrease with
an informed audience, but the issue would still exist. The underlying premise
of this is that if these "businesses" couldn't make money through
more traditional means, they would have to quit committing fraud. Though these
gentle forms of intervention are not as conspicuous as rigid regulations, they
are widely applied and may even prove to be more effective than strict
guidelines when applied consistently. The public education and awareness
campaign has proven to be ‘very successful' in stopping other unethical
corporate practices like fraud. The National Consumer Protection Agency (BPKN)
has been educating the public about consumer protection and how to prevent
falling victim to fraud since 2001. Most of its preventive measures were of
software that average people might use at home to change the way they handled
private information and spoke with others on the internet.(Wadi and others,
2023) The government collaborated with non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
and commercial businesses; this strategy was adopted for subsequent campaigns
due to its great success. The BPKN updates its consumer complaint statistics on
a regular basis to let customers know about the newest scam tactics and the
businesses that are behind them. Though more may be done to spread the
information so that individuals use these tools before they need them, these
efforts go a long way towards protecting online shoppers from fraud. Another
preventive measure that may benefit users in their online activities is the
adoption of robust and up-to-date antivirus software, since this program can
detect websites with dubious credentials.
INTENTIONAL DECEPTION
A false statement of fact
made without malice or fraud and without the speaker's knowledge is referred to
as an innocent misrepresentation. It could also come from information being
withheld. Under common law, innocent misrepresentations frequently had no legal
repercussions. The common law remedies of damages (for a breach of a guarantee)
and termination and/or damages (for a violation of a condition) would apply if
it could be demonstrated that the representation constituted a term of the
contract. However, it is also possible to argue that the parties just
misinterpreted some of the key provisions of the agreement. But in every other
situation, recourse would need to be pursued through equity courts. This would
give a customer the right to cancel the contract and seek equitable relief.
Usually, this entails returning any purchases made online for our funds.
UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF RISK
Unequal risk exposure
when making purchases online, especially when making financial transactions. It
is standard procedure for businesses to demand full payment (by bank transfer
or credit card) prior to fulfilling an order from a client. It's dangerous
because it could result in clients having to wait longer than they anticipated
for their orders to arrive, receiving items that don't meet their expectations,
or receiving goods that never reach them at all. Although the normal risk
allocation provision is designed to shield businesses from careless clients, it
may actually harm consumers by ensuring that their orders will only be executed
when they have received full payment. Since "authentic" is defined as
"trustworthy, genuine, or legitimate" by the Indonesian General
Dictionary, the two adjectives can be used interchangeably. The validity of the
laws controlling these transactions is seriously called into doubt by the
legality of the agreements made in an online marketplace.
CONCLUSION
Cunningham and Grabosky's
proposed smart regulation would use preventative measures, such as education
and sanctions, in a more comprehensive manner. Under such an approach, there
would be a wider base of control as opposed to a challenge to the state's formal
regulatory authority. It has been suggested that through the employment of
informal regulatory authority, businesses and consumers may supply such grounds
of control in the online consumer market. Malbon develops the "alliance
approach," which is a tactic that Cunningham and Grabosky had alluded to.
The secret to using this method successfully is to pinpoint the sources of
influence that can be enlisted to further the objectives of public policy.
Businesses who use dishonest and misleading tactics will always come out on top
in any dispute resulting from their conduct. The explanation of the study's
findings indicates that trade law enforcement and online transaction complaints
in Indonesia have only been handled electronically.
[1] Kuswanto, H.,
Hadi Pratama, W. B., &
Ahmad, I. S.(2020). Survey data on students’ online
shopping behaviour: A focus on selected university students in Indonesia. Data
in Brief, 29, 105073. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2019.105073
[2] Makarim, E. (2005).
Pengantar Hukum Telematika
(Introduction to Law
Telematics). Raja Grafindo Persada