Markets Wired

The Federal Trade Commission will host more than 250 government officials, business leaders, consumer advocates, and academics from around the world to discuss opportunities and challenges for consumers in electronic commerce at a conference organized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) December 8-10, 2009. The event, Empowering E-consumers: Strengthening Consumer Protection in the Internet Economy, coincides with the ten year anniversary of the OECD’s Guidelines for Consumer Protection in the Context of Electronic Commerce, which were adopted on December 9, 1999. The OECD is a 30-nation forum that promotes sustainable economic growth, trade, and development, and provides a setting for governments to compare policy experiences and coordinate domestic and international policies.

On December 8, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz will welcome conference participants, and U.S. Permanent Representative to the OECD, Karen Kornbluh, will deliver opening remarks. On December 9, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría will deliver keynote addresses. Later that day, John Donahoe, the President and CEO of eBay, Inc. will give a keynote address at an invitation-only luncheon at the Canadian Embassy.

More information on the conference, including registration materials, the conference program, a list of speakers, and a background report on e-commerce trends and the conference topics is available on the OECD’s website at www.oecd.org/ict/econsumerconference.

The event, which is organized by the OECD, is free; however, there are space limitations and advance registration through the OECD is required. The conference will be held at the FTC’s satellite building conference center, located at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC. Overflow rooms will be available at the FTC Headquarters Building, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. All attendees will be required to display a current driver’s license or other form of photo identification for entry. All sessions are open to the media.

There will also be live webcast of the event for those who wish to participate but cannot attend. The link for the webcast, which will begin at 9:00 a.m. on December 8 is http://htc-01.media.globix.net/COMP008760MOD1/ftc_web/FTCindex.html.

Questions may be made by the public, using the tool at: http://moderator.appspot.com/. These will be shared with the panelists at the conference. Discussion may also be followed via the OECD Twitter group, http://search.twitter.com.  You must enter the hashtag (#ecom) as a keyword.

Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request. Requests for such accommodations should be submitted via e-mail to: cmcglothin@ftc.gov or by calling Carrie McGlothin at 202-326-3388. Such requests should include a detailed description of the accommodations needed and a way to contact you if we need more information.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

(OECD E-consumer Conference)