E-Commerce

February 12, 2020: Media release: RCEP e-commerce chapter leaked as AFTINET raises concerns about human rights risks

January 21, 2020: A New York Times investigation reprinted in the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that an American software company, established by Australian developer Hoan Ton-That, has developed ground-breaking facial recognition software that is being used without any regulation or public scrutiny by both public agencies and private companies in the US.

January 14, 2020: Uber has written to the Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez to officially notify him that it intends to sue the Colombian government for its decision to block the platform company from operating in the country.

December 3, 2019: A new article in the Australian suggests that the government may delay its response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) digital platforms inquiry report amid strong lobbying from the tech industry.

November 19, 2019: Kanksshi Agarwal, a policy and political researcher based in Delhi, has analysed the role that e-commerce provisions in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have played in India’s decision to withdraw from the agreement.

October 28, 2019: A new article by Rahul Nath Choudhury in the The Interpreter outlines concern, particularly amongst developing countries, about the inclusion of e-commerce provisions in trade agreements. Many developing country governments, and civil society organisations, are concerned that the e-commerce agenda is an attempt by the US to establish international rules that suit big tech companies from developed countries, locking developing countries out of the digital economy.

October 3, 2019: A new article by Deborah James from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows how e-commerce rules in the WTO and other trade deals could limit developing countries’ ability to tax the business activities of transnational corporations, reducing much needed revenue for public services and the development of decent employment and to fund their digital industrialisation.

July 29, 2019: After an 18-month inquiry, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) which is independent of government, has produced a Report on Digital Platforms with 23 recommendations for regulation to protect consumer privacy, prevent extremist and misleading digital content, address the market dominance of Facebook and Google and support public interest journalism.

July 11, 2019: A new article by Deborah James at the Centre for Economic and Policy Research has criticised the attempt by industrialised countries to use the WTO to establish new e-commerce rules that would increase the power of Big Tech corporations and restrict developing countries' digital industrialisation.

April 3, 2019: Over three hundred labour unions, consumer advocates and environmental organizations from all continents sent a letter on April 1, 2019, to World Trade Organization member nations expressing a "profound and urgent opposition" to talks that would establish new rules on digital trade.