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It is no surprise
that the European Union’s digital
agenda is a pivotal priority of
the Europe 2020 Strategy and the European Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker. The EU has gone digital and e-governance
increasingly permeates EU governance. With ICT developments rapidly
progressing and online consumerism taking over the internal market,
e-governance seems unavoidable to boost economic growth and
competitiveness in the EU. As part of a strategy towards enhanced economic
growth, the main objectives of pursuing a fully-fledged digital single market
encompass increased revenues, employment opportunities, and the realization of
a knowledge-based society. Digital priorities moreover support the EU’s It endeavors
to assert regional and global leadership.
The EU’s single
market ensures the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital. In a
similar vein, the EU’s digital single market aims to ensure these
four freedoms online. Paramount to a safe and smooth functioning of the
digital single market are tailored regulations and directives, pertaining to
especially fair competition, cyber safety, and consumer protection.
In addition, the EU needs to invest in new mechanisms to strengthen the
interoperability of online services, networks, data storage, and devices.
However, adjacent to the apparent need for technological
ingenuity, new standards, intelligence and pan-European internet
access and digital literacy, there is one greater challenge the
EU is bound to tackle: building trust among consumers, businesses and
other actors moving around on the digital single market.
Trust is
a basic criterion for a digital market to flourish, because it
allows for fruitful online engagement among relative strangers. However,
trust is, by definition, a rather abstract factor that is not easily obtained
and one that is dependent upon different non-controllable
variables. Trust touches upon integrity, human interaction, and
reliance. How does the EU engender trust? The EU links the matter of
trust directly to combatting crime, anticipating cyber attacks,
and ensuring data security. The invaluable contribution of these
factors to a healthy digital market notwithstanding, a digital market
built on trust requires vision beyond crime, security and data
protection. It requires investing in personal relations.
Following Rachel Botsman, inventor of the collaborative consumption theory and digital technology
expert, trust increasingly functions as the economy’s new
currency. Botsman stresses the importance of personal relations in a
digital market place that is made up of consumers sharing their collaborative
assets. She mentions concepts like car sharing, space rentals but also the
exchange of knowledge and skills. Sharing has become easy and efficient,
and it is built on virtual trust between strangers. However, Botsman asserts, this virtual
trust between relative strangers that paves the way to fruitful
collaboration requires the additional device of reputation.
Reputation is a
mechanism to ensure social control, and this is particularly
relevant when real life interaction is gradually being replaced
by virtual
interaction. In Botsman’s words: reputation measures
trust. Therefore, a fruitful digital single market
requires reputation as a mechanism. The EU’s strategy to
engender trust, consequently, should go beyond combatting crime and
privacy protection. It ought to include reputation building.
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