The growth referring to the usage of and commerce over the Internet (the Internet market) is expected to be continuously high. There are a large number of people involved in forecast creation regarding the growth in the Internet market. The forecasts vary among themselves, however they are all indicating a continuous strong growth of e-commerce and the number of Internet users. According to Forrester Research Inc. (“Forrester”) it is principally the following four factors that are expected to compel the growth in the Internet market:

• Cheaper hardware and faster Internet connections.
• Improved Internet stores.
• Altered purchasing habits over the Internet combined with an increased purchasing frequency.
• Increased possibilities for the customer to both examine and pay his/her invoice directly over the Internet.

E-commerce can be defined as commerce with products and services with payments mainly over the Internet. With a population of over 386 million the 17 countries of Western Europe represent one of the world’s largest potential e-commerce blocks.