Introduction
Electronic commerce is commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce. It consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet or other computerized networks. It is noted that the amount of trade conducted electronically has grown huge since the wide acceptance and use of the Internet so that a variety of commerce was conducted this way. It has spurred and drawn innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Electronic commerce generally uses the World Wide Web in major points of the transaction’s lifecycle encompassing even a wider range of technologies such as the use of electronic mail (Chadhaury & Kuilboer, 2002).
Some forms of electronic commerce are entirely electronic such as access to virtual items of premium content on a website or electronic games. However, a majority of electronic commerce involves travel as well as the transfer of physical items from one point to a destination. Many major manufacturers and retailers have an electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web (Chadhaury & Kuilboer, 2002).
Other forms of electronic commerce involve businesses and are referred to as Business-to-Business or B2B. B2B is open to many interested parties such as in commodity exchange but may be limited to other specific or pre-qualified participants called private electronic market (Chadhaury & Kuilboer, 2002).
Electronic commerce is considered as a sales aspect of e-business and may involve the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions, as well as delivery methods.
Discussion
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates many electronic commerce activities. These include the use of commercial e-mails, online advertising, and consumer privacy. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 established the national standards for direct marketing over e-mail while the Federal Trade Commission Act regulates all forms of advertising, including online advertising, and states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive (FTC, 2000). FTC since has brought a number of cases to enforce the corporate privacy statements as well as safeguard the security of consumers’ privacy (Miller, 2002).
Modern electronic commerce involves all consumption transactions that include ordering digital contents for immediate online consumption, to conventional goods and services as well as meta-services to facilitate the many types of electronic commerce (Chadhaury & Kuilboer, 2002).
For many consumers, electronic commerce is conducted on the World Wide Web where individuals may go online to purchase anything from books, groceries to expensive items like real estate, and other financial services such as online banking, online bill payments, buying stocks, transferring funds from one account to another, and wire transfer to other countries.
Likewise, big corporations and financial institutions use the internet to exchange financial data to facilitate domestic and international business, process business as well as provide payments and financial services. It was noted that data integrity and security are important and pressing issues for electronic commerce (Miller, 2002)
In addition, the use of contracts increased over the internet for purchases and sales of goods and services. However, not all agreements over the internet are “e-commerce” but are limited to transactions involving the purchase and sale of goods and services over the internet (Oxford, 2007). License agreements such as protection of privacy as well as the use of website services where no money is exchanged may also be considered as online agreements.
The Household Use of Information technology provided that computer and internet access in Australia is as follows:
Likewise, the types of contracts on the web include the following:
- E-commerce contract between a web buyer and web-seller involving the purchase and sale of a good or service over the internet.
- The license agreement between the website and web-user where no money is involved and no good or service is purchased.
- Purchase and sale of goods between two suppliers for the purposes of re-supply also called B2B (Oxford, 2007).
The different types of E-commerce agreements are:
- E-Commerce Agreements are e-commerce ventures involving consumers and web-sellers of goods and services.
- Online Licence Agreements are online license agreements authorizing web-users access to the company’s website. Typically there are no sales or purchases and no money is exchanged. The company is merely using the website for advertisements and publicity.
- E-Business Agreements are e-business contracts and do not involve consumers. Typically they involve the purchase & sale for the purposes of re-supply (Oxford, 2007).
In addition, the elements of an E-Commerce & E-Business contract are:
- Web Offer – on the website, there is a need to distinguish from non-offers such as invitations. To determine whether an offer has been made use the reasonable person test or objective and distinguish from: advertisements, electronic price lists, or electronic catalogs.
- Web Acceptance – it must be communicated to the one making the offer. This general rule can be displaced in special circumstances such as acceptance by conduct, website users can accept by conduct by simply downloading material or documenting the purchase of goods/services of the user’s website. In this case, it was said that courts apply an objective test to interpret the actions of the website user (Oxford, 2007).
- Acceptance by mouse-click – the user may reach a binding legal agreement by accepting the website offer with a mouse-click. The consumer is bound with the acceptance to be unequivocal relating back to the offer. The owner of the website makes sure that the website is able to validate the terms of the offer from the viewer.
- Acceptance by email – is considered the most problematic in terms of timing and the outcome will depend on the circumstances of the case (Oxford, 2007).
There are however enacted laws such as the Electronic Transactions Legislation Act 1999 (Cth) based on two principles of Functional Equivalence and Technology Neutrality (Oxford, 2007).
While the internet has provided leaps of commercial and consumption freedom over the past few years, fraud concerns have emerged. Web site operators still dread the Worm propagation attempts of “MS-SQL version overflow” or “MS-PCT Client Hello overflow”. These were identified by VeriSign, a security firm that reported fourth quarter of 2004 have indicated more than 680,000 “MS-SQL version overflow” attempts and over 375,000 “MS-PCT Client Hello overflow” attempts (LeClaire, 2005).
At this point, both merchants and consumers are left on their own to look for measures to protect both ends of the transaction. Countries Romania, Vietnam, and the U.S. reported the total volume of e-commerce fraud in 2004, while Belarus, Slovenia, and Vietnam were the top countries for internal percentage of fraudulent transactions (LeClaire, 2005).
Amidst internet traffic growth, other concerns such as phishing or stealing of identity became major concerns as international or e-commerce laws are not yet in place to address such archaic as well as a global phenomenon. In fact, one indication was that “We have a better ability to close down the sites in the U.S. than the ones outside of the U.S.[…] outside of the U.S. is we don’t know if they are owned by the people who truly do the phishing or if they are used as stepping stones [to gain access to other computers on a network],” Mark Griffiths of VeriSign said (quoted by LeClaire, 2005).
E-commerce provides greater opportunity but with it comes greater challenges. Both humans and worms continue to scan for systems that are not patched against common exploits so the report reveals that many security events originate actually in the United States. LeClaire (2005) reported that in the period October 2004 to January 2005, the U.S. generated 79 percent of fraudulent transactions, followed by Canada (5.7 percent), Taiwan (2.6 percent), Korea (2.5 percent), and the UK (2.4 percent).
Conclusion
Electronic Commerce has grown exponentially and there is no indication as to its slowing down. Many countries, as well as remote places, have been identified to gain from it so that it has crossed boundaries and even laws of all lands as it moves as if entirely on its own. The opportunities and advantages to the less competitive players of the global market have likewise added to its appeal, reliance, and choice.
While countries with the technology and power may be capable of addressing emerging lawful issues in order to control internet crimes and frauds, it has not been indicated yet that these technologies are under the effort and hands of governments. At most, these are private firms with a stake in profit and involve B2B organizations.
In fact, what makes internet fraud and crime more palatable is the lack of coordination, information as well as reported crimes committed within its confines if it is defined at all. International e-commerce laws need to be updated immediately but it seems nobody is out to lead or even know where to start. A new order could be dawning that indicates consumers and retailers are entirely left on their own and that it is up to them to maintain reliability, credibility, and image over time. Laws will have to keep up.
Reference
Chaudhury, Abijit; Jean-Pierre Kuilboer (2002). e-Business and e-Commerce Infrastructure. McGraw-Hill.
Federal Trade Commission or FTC (2000). “Advertising and Marketing on the Internet: Rules of the Road.” Web.
Miller, Roger (2002). The Legal and E-Commerce Environment Today. Thomson Learning.
LeClaire, Jennifer (2005). “Repor: Internet Commerce Growing Despite Fraud Concerns.” E-Commerce Times, Web.
Oxford (2007). Law & Business (2nd ed). Oxford University Press.