Auditor liability for electronic commerce transaction assurance: The CPA/CA WebTrust

The AICPA and CICA have developed a new and promising assurance service for CPAs/CAs to offer clients-the CPA/CA WebTrust, The development and deploym ent of the CPA/CA WebTrust, however, are done in a high litigation risk env iromnent. No U.S. legal case has yet been reported which addresses directly the liability of accountants to nonclients for disseminating misleading fi nancial or business information over a computer network; The rule that can be distilled from several related legal cases is that one who negligently d isseminates misleading financial or other information over a public medium will be immune from a negligence claim, However,the current U.S. legal envi ronment is characterized by a high level of uncertainty. Several risk manag ement strategies may be adopted by WebTrust providers to minimize litigatio n risk.