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By Sally Watson, 21 June 1999 00:30

NEWS The UK government is expected to introduce its long-awaited Ecommerce Bill in the House of Commons this week, after months of industry speculation. The release of an ecommerce consultation paper in March attracted widespread criticism when industry leaders were given only three weeks to respond to the proposals. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) claimed at the time that the Bill would make the UK the best electronic trading environment in the world by 2002. But analysts and industry representatives have expressed concern about the amount of time spent debating key escrow, and claim not enough attention has been given to other important policies. Mark O'Conor, lawyer at Bird & Bird, said even the government's new model of Trusted Third Parties (TTP) - where a certified organisation holds onto the encryption keys - could cause problems. "Who are these trusted third parties going to be? How do they get accredited and who will be responsible if a key falls into the wrong hands?" he said. O'Conor added: "It's taken a long time for business and consumers to overcome the fear of the Internet. The Bill could put that back again." But according to O'Conor, the final word in ecommerce law will not be the UK government's, but will instead lie with the European Commission. "The UK Ecommerce Bill is trimmed down compared to EC laws - it will just provide clarification. We should keep an eye on what happens in Europe instead," he said. Once the full Bill has been published, it will face committee review and readings in the Commons and the House of Lords, before passing into law - probably by spring 2000.