Liability of Certification Service Providers Towards Relying Parties and the Need for a Clear System to Enhance the Level of Trust in Electronic Communication

摘要

Building trust in electronic communication is probably the biggest challenge of this era. It is a key element to achieving widespread use of new technologies and reaping the full benefit of e-Commerce or other current phenomena like e-Government and e-Banking, Certification service providers can play a crucial role in the process of building trust in electronic communication, and clear and effective liability rules for these 'trust dispensers'—meaning a system which is understandable, user-friendly, coherent, and clear as to responsibilities and conditions for compensation—would give a strong impetus to the confidence of both consumers and businesses that rely on certificates. To that end, this article presents an in-depth analysis and re-interpretation of the liability of certification service providers as set out in Article 6 of the Electronic Signatures Directive. After balancing the pros and cons of the system recommended by the European legislator, another practicable system for the liability of certification service providers is proposed. This system is based on the concept of a different type of liability for different types of information provided in the certificates by certification service providers.