EXAMINING THE CONSUMER PROTECTION AND COMPREHENSIVENESS IN E-COMMERCE IN TANZANIA
Keywords:
E-Commerce, Comprehensiveness, Consumer Rights, Consumer Protection.Abstract
This paper seeks to assess consumer protection and comprehensiveness in e-commerce in Tanzania. Mixed research method was used to collect data from the study area, including, 210 respondents and 2 key informant interviews. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was applied for quantitative data analysis, while content analysis was adopted for qualitative data. The findings show that the legal framework in Tanzania does not offer tight protection to online consumers exposing them to various online vices. Because of this, majority citizens have opted not to engage in online business due to fear of being negatively affected from online businesses or suppliers. We found acts of fraud, misrepresentation, lack of redress and others to have dominated online business. It is therefore recommended inter alia, that there should be enacted single legislation that provides for consumer rights and protection for different types of consumers and the law should seek also to establish a centralized body dealing with consumer rights and protection.References
Licker, P. & Molla, A. (2001). E-Commerce Systems Success: An Attempt to Extend and Re-specify the Delone and Maclean Model of Is Success. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 2(4), 131–141.
Babar, A., Rasheed, A., & Sajjad, M. (2014). Factors Influencing Online Shopping Behavior of Consumers. Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research, 4(4), 314–320.
Canals, Laia. (2017). Instruments for gathering data, In Moore, et. al. (Eds), Qualitative approaches to research on plurilingual education - Enfocaments qualitatius per a la recerca en educació plurilingüe - Enfoques cualitativos para la investigación en educación plurilingüe (pp. 390-401). Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2017.emmd2016.637
Festo, C. M. (2011). Consumer protection under the Tanzania Telecommunication Laws, Policy and Regulations: A case study of Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (Masters Dissertation. Open University of Tanzania, Dar es salaam.
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Approaches. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1523157?origin=crossref&seq=1#page_scan_tab_content.
Kane, M. (1999). The good research guide for small-scale social research projects. Family Practice, 16(2), 207–207.
Fair Competition Commission. (2003). Fair Competition Commission Guidelines to Consumer Protection.
Fernandes, L. (2013). Fraud in Electronic Payment Transactions: Threats and Countermeasures. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing & Management Review, 2(3), 2319–2836.
GSMA Association. (2018). Triggering mobile internet use in Côte d’ Ivoire and Tanzania.
Kalia, G., & Mishra, D. A. (2016). Effects of online Advertising on Consumers. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 21(9), 35–41.
Kisyombe, M. (2012). Ad Hoc Expert Meeting on Consumer Protection: The interface between competition and consumer policies Geneva, 12 to 13 July 2012 Session 3: Emerging Issues in Consumer Protection: Complementarities and areas of tension.
Makelainen, S. (2006). From B2C to C2C e-commerce. University of Helsinki, Retrieved from http://www.groundswell.fi/sim/academic/(sim)
Makame, W. H., Kang, J., & Park, S. (2014). Factors influencing electronic commerce adoption in developing countries: The case of Tanzania. South African Journal of Business Management, 45(2), 83–96.
Mohammed, A. B., & Alkubise, M. (2012). How do Online Advertisements Affect Consumer Purchasing Intention: Empirical Evidence from a Developing Country. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(7), 208–218.
Mwenegoha, T. (2015). The Development of Consumer Protection Laws in Tanzania for Electronic Consumer Contracts. (Doctoral thesis) Bond University.
Nagaty, K. A. (2010). E-Commerce Business Models. In Encyclopedia of E-Business, Development and Management in the Global Economy (pp. 359–369).
Noordzij, M., et.al. (2010). Sample size calculations: Basic principles and common pitfalls, Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, 25(5), 1388–1393.
Oreku, G. S., Mtenzi, F. J., & Ali, A.-D. (2016). A Viewpoint of Tanzania E-Commerce and Implementation Barriers, ICIT 2011 The 5th International Conference on Information Technology.
How to cite this paper: Ulimboka L. Mwasomola, Enock Ojwang’, and Dr. Dickson Pastory (PhD) (2020), Paper Title: Examining the
Consumer Protection and Comprehensiveness in E-Commerce in Tanzania. Business Education Journal (BEJ), Volume IV, Issue
I, 12 Pages. www.cbe.ac.tz/bej
Planning Commission. (2000). The Tanzania Development Vision 2025 Planning Commission.
Ratliff, J. D., & Rubinfeld, D. L. (2010). Online Advertising: Defining Relevant Markets. Journal of Competition Law and Economics. 6(3), 653–686.
Singh, Y. K. (2006). Fundamental of Research Methodology and Statistics, New Age International (P) Ltd Publishers.
Terkan, R. (2014). Importance of Creative Advertising and Marketing According to 27 University Students’ Perspective. International Review of Management and Marketing, 4(3), 239–246.
UN Commission on International Trade Law. (2016). United Nations UNCITRAL Technical Notes on Online Dispute Resolution.
UNCTAD. (2017). Consumer Protection in electronic commerce. Ge, Vol. 06518, pp. 17–6518. Retrieved from
Zhang, J. X., & Ip, R. K. F. (2015). E-commerce advertising in social networking sites and implications for social commerce. In Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, PACIS 2015 – Proceedings, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems
Zo, H., & Ramamurthy, K. (2009). Consumer selection of E-commerce websites in a B2C environment: A discrete decision choice model. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems and Humans, 39(4), 819–839. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMCA.2009.2018633
