What is co-regulation? PDF Print
Monday, 30 November 1998 10:00
Co-regulation is a method of sharing responsibility between business and government. This system is supported by the IIA in many areas because it can provide a flexible way of maintaining relevant and enforceable best practice standards within a rapidly changing communications environment. Pure self-regulation has problems because not all business will voluntarily meet best practice standards, leaving some users exposed. This can create a bad reputation for the industry as a whole and retard the uptake of e-commerce.

In areas like privacy, we think there should be minimum protections which apply to all customers, whether or not the businesses they deal with choose to subscribe to an industry code. However, pure government regulation is problematic because the processes of making new laws is far too slow to keep up with rapid changes in technology.

Co-regulation provides the strengths of both systems - keeping pace with change, and providing an industry-wide safety net for consumers.
Last Updated on Wednesday, 17 December 2008 02:40