The e-commerce sector has proven to be a big driver of economic growth in ASEAN, with the size of ASEAN’s digital economy expected to reach 8.5% of the region’s GDP in 2025 as compared to 1.3% in 2015. This digitalisation trend is further accelerated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – online transactions are increasingly becoming the norm given the frequent movement restrictions or ‘lock-downs’ imposed by governments in order to curtail the spread of the disease.
ASEAN has long recognised the potential of e-commerce in the region. The initiative to implement an ASEAN Trust Mark Scheme was specifically set out in the 2020 ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework (ACRF) in recognition of the value it will bring in, amongst others, harmonising the ASEAN Member States governments’ respective e-commerce legislations and reducing uncertainty and cost of online transactions for consumers which will in turn bolster the volume of transactions with e-shops awarded under the Scheme. ASEAN has commissioned this Study to determine the costs and benefits of the Scheme, obtain an understanding of existing national trust mark mechanisms within ASEAN, and receive policy recommendations for operationalising the Scheme.
This Study concludes that there is currently no operational regional e-commerce trust mark scheme at the ASEAN level, and that the characteristics, scope, degree of implementation, compliance and level of enforcement of national e-commerce-related trust mark schemes vary across the different AMS. This is notwithstanding that a regional e-commerce trust mark scheme will likely be beneficial to both consumers and e-shops. This Study recommends that the Scheme be operationalised as a dual-layered accreditation scheme, where a trusted regional body such as ASEAN (or a department within ASEAN) designs a set of criteria for obtaining the trust mark under the Scheme at the ASEAN level. Yet to be accredited at the ASEAN level, it is contemplated that the responsibility for verifying and monitoring compliance is in the first instance managed by national supervisory or competent bodies, in a way analogous to the existing regional e-commerce trust mark scheme in Europe.
Download the full study report:
Feasibility Study of ASEAN Trust Mark Scheme – Final Study Report