Legal and Regulatory Challenges in Facilitating a Sustainable ASEAN E-Commerce Sector

Abstract

The ASEAN region's potential ability to reap the benefits of e-commerce is considerable, and it is timely to strategize a sustainable pathway for ASEAN's e-commerce market. This chapter explores the arising legal and regulatory challenges with measures needed to facilitate e-commerce activities in the region. A qualitative research design is utilized to review secondary data and analyze ASEAN's current legal and regulatory framework. The findings reveal that despite the untapped potential of the collectively large “ASEAN market,” there are significant challenges to developing e-commerce in some countries. Moreover, there are additional regulatory challenges in tackling a myriad of issues related to cross-border challenges in terms of security and reliability of payments: logistics, customs and border administration, foreign market access, data protection, and the regulatory environment for national and cross-border e-commerce transactions. Some form of legal and regulatory harmonization is required between member nations in order to mutually reap the benefits of e-commerce.