Electronic commerce on the Internet: legal issues of contracts on the World Wide Web

© 1996 Harry S. K. TanIn the early nineties, despite the widespread knowledge of the potential uses of the Internet, many businesses and information technologists scoffed at using it as a medium for business. It was thought that the technology, capacity and critical mass would not make the Internet a suitable medium for electronic commerce. However, by the last quarter of 1994 there were over 10,000 companies offering information and services for sale over the Internet. This figure is now expected to grow to over one million businesses by the year 2000 despite the lack of clear laws governing commercial activity on the Internet. This paper is intended to investigate the issues of electronic commerce and the difficulties contracting parties face on the Internet which would not normally arise in conventional transactions. In addition, as one of the primary interest in the Internet comes from the easy and quick access to overseas markets, the paper will also consider the international aspects of Internet transactions. It is not the intention for the paper to be a comprehensive or definitive treatise on contract or international law, but rather consider the intriguing issues raised by electronic contracting in the domestic and international context. Chapter 1 is a concise introduction to the technology of the Internet and its workings to provide a background for the discussion that follows. Chapter 2 looks at the unresolved international issues that will arise out of trans-border Internet trade. Chapters 3 and 4 will then review the impact of Internet technology and how it challenged the current practices of proving the existence of contracts and the formation of contract. In chapter 5 we look at how the law deals with the specific issues of software being sold on-line and the attempts by Internet-stores to avoid statutory conditions designed to protect the consumer