Ethical issues surrounding the development of business-to-business trading exchanges (marketplaces)

Summary form only given. Business to business (B2B) exchanges are evolving from private electronic links between large manufacturers and their suppliers known as electronic data exchanges (EDI). While the concept is not new, its metamorphosing into e-marketplaces has been primarily due to the development of the World Wide Web and its extensible markup language (XML) companion. The attraction of exchanges is the promise of better prices for buyers, greater channel access for buyers and suppliers and operating efficiencies associated with automation for all. The advantages gained by electronically linking buyers and sellers have a potential dark side in opportunities for legal and ethical violations. The government is concerned about potential anti-competitive practices including price fixing and selectively excluding firms from an exchange. Proprietary information gleaned from an exchange could be used to obtain favorable terms of trade, or participating in an exchange could be predicated upon an agreement not to participate in competing exchanges. These issues are discussed in the paper.