It has called on the UK government to allocate more funding to establish a specialist internet enforcement department that would co-ordinate the TSI’s on-line strategy. At the moment, according to the TSI, many trading standards officers in the UK simply do not understand how the internet functions and are unable to carry out basic operations such as tracing the owner of a web site.
The TSI has admitted that it has fallen behind the times when it comes to regulating e-tail, and that it is currently unable to properly regulate the transactions of the estimated 6 million on-line consumers who use the internet in the UK.
Richard Webb, the author of the TSI report told BBC News, “we are coming under increasing pressure from on-line businesses, conscious to prove that e-commerce is safe. And consumers are demanding a visible, effective on-line presence from the TSI”.