Christine Oddy will be speaking on her European Parliament report on electronic commerce to key business people from the European Convergent Communications Network (which represents companies in publishing, entertainment banking and computing) at the Hilton Residence, 28 Square Amborix, Brussels, on Thursday 29 April.

In response to the fast growing electronic commerce industry (shopping on the internet) a new draft law has been scrutinised by the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee under the lead of Christine Oddy.

Christine Oddy states:

"Shopping on the internet is international. Someone in Coventry can buy a book from Amazon Publishers in The States. This raises new legal issues such as when is a contract concluded and which legal system applies. The European Commission is keen to encourage the growth of internet shopping and has proposed a new law to clarify contract problems.

"There are also points of consumer confidence. People need to feel reassured that they will receive promptly and properly goods purchased over the internet and that they are not trading with cowboy operators who will disappear from the screen as soon as money has been sent. The Legal Affairs Committee has just adopted overwhelmingly my report which seeks to deal with this."