Electronic Commerce - An International Phenomenon, Generating Commercial Litigations

AuthorAngelica Rosu
PositionAssociate Professor, PhD, 'Danubius' University of Galati, Faculty of Law, Romania
Pages277-280
Legal Sciences
277
Electronic Commerce – An International Phenomenon, Generating
Commercial Litigations
Angelica Rou
1
Abstract: Although the e-commerce boom of the pas t few years has produced plenty of satisfied e-shoppers
and successful Web-based companies, many consumers and businesses are left wondering where they can go
to resolve their online disputes. The legal system (such as the court system and classical arbitration) cannot
effectively respond to the challenges posed by conducting electronic commerce and this paper is proposed to
analyse the types of disputes that can arise from those e-commerce operations. The aim of this approach is
represented by our attempt to explain why conflict resolution cannot be reasonably accomplished us ing
traditional legal system and consequently the measures that have been taken by the international bodies to
facilitate consumers' right to a fair and effective trial services.
Keywords: electronic commerce; commercial litigations; online dispute legislation
1. Introduction
The Internet has created a new economic ecosystem, the e-commerce marketplace, and it has become
the virtual main street of the world.
Providing a quick and convenient way of exchanging goods and services both regionally and globally,
e-commerce has boomed. Business-to-business and business-to-consumer which represent the main
categories of electronic commerce has rapidly developed over the past decade, based largely on the
exponential diffusion of the internet, increased broadband access and the rise of mobile commerce
throughout the world.
Along with this extraordinary development of electronic commerce the number of conflicts has
increased considerably in this area. E-commerce disputes originate with particular characteristics due
to the way internet transactions are entered to.
Disputes arising in the online context are diverse, and include failure to deliver, late delivery, false or
deceptive information on price and product.
Those disputes were difficult for courts to handle for a variety of reasons, which included high volume
of small value claims, the contrast between the low value of the transaction and the high cost of
litigation, questions of applicable law in both electronic commerce and consumer protection contexts
and difficulties of enforcement of foreign judgments.
On the one hand, as electronic commerce develops at a furious pace all over the world it is becoming
clearer that traditional means of dispute resolution are not well-suited to the fast-paced and relentlessly
globalized world of business-to-consumer electronic commerce.
E-disputants experiences are that in court litigation cost is very high (due to its international element)
and delays are very long. This provokes resistance to the risk of court litigation. In other words, the
way national courts work sometimes lacks flexibility, rapidity and the specialization demanded in
dealing with cyberspace cases.
1
Associate Professor, PhD, “Danubius” University of Galati, Faculty of Law, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd, Galat i,
Romania, tel: +40372 361 102, fax: +40372 361 290, Corresponding author: rosuangelica@univ-danubius.ro.

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