Federal Trade Commission
Protecting America's Consumers
FTC International Web Survey:
Disclosure of General Business and Contract-Related Info by Online Retailers
- FTC staff conducted an informal survey of 200 websites-- 100 domestic sites and 100 foreign sites (including 17 countries) -- to determine what types of information retailers disclose online.
- The URLs were selected from a random sample of 2,200 sites with retail SIC codes provided by Dun & Bradstreet. Sites not in English or not offering consumer goods appropriate for cross-border sales were excluded from the survey. Sites were included even if they did not allow consumers to buy goods online.
- We defined "International" websites as those who provided a non-US physical address when registering for the domain name, and "Domestic" websites as those who provided a US physical address.
- These results are not statistically significant and are intended only as a "snapshot."
- The survey looked only at those disclosures made before a consumer was asked to provide payment information. No determination was made as to whether sites actually engage in cross-border sales.
RESULTS
% of Sites |
Total | Domestic | International |
| E-Mail Address | 90% (179) | 91% (91) | 88% (88) |
| Phone Number | 88% (176) | 92% (92) | 84% (84) |
| Street address or PO Box (1) | 84% (167) | 90% (90) | 77% (77) |
| Merchant's Country Explicit (2) or Clear from Context (eg - country flag) | 54% (108) | 29% (29) | 79% (79) |
| Geographic Restrictions on Sales | 17% (34) | 21% (21) | 13% (13) |
% of Sites |
|||
| Refund Policy | 26% (31) | 28% (16) | 24% (15) |
| Total Costs | 65% (78) | 66% (38) | 65% (40) |
| Cancellation Terms | 9% (11) | 7% (4) | 11% (7) |
| Warranty | 20% (24) | 22% (13) | 18% (11) |
| Applicable Law | 10% (12) | 7% (4) | 13% (8) |
| Currency Applicable to the Sale | 38% (46) | 16% (9) | 60% (37) |
| Delivery Terms (including time period) (for 105 sites that deliver offline) |
38% (40) | 36% (20) | 41% (20) |
- The merchant address
did not necessarily
include a
country name.
- Sites that disclosed a street address, but not a country name, were not included.