Contract Law Assignment On E-Commerce Business
Question
Task: Critically discuss the concept of online purchases and the three methods of electronic contracts (clickwrap,shrink wrap and browse wrap agreements) with supporting law cases. Do include in text citations and reference page with the relevant websites please
Answer
CONCEPT ON ONLINE PURCHASES
The research on contract law assignment, in the present era, online purchasing has been grown in a significant manner; primarily due to people consider it convenient and secure mechanism for buying goods and services. Concerning this, online shopping is referred to as a procedure finding and buying of goods and services over the internet. In other words, it can be said in the contract law assignment that it is considered as a form of electronic commerce that permits individuals or customers to purchase the goods or services from the seller by using a web browser through the internet in a direct manner. By visiting of website, consumers could search goods or services provided by retailers in a direct manner or by finding among various vendors by application of shopping search engine, which demonstrates the availability of similar goods and pricing at distinct e-retailors (Deka, 2017). Further, Amazon.com and Alibaba are considered as most enormous online retailing corporations across the world.
Along with the above aspects presented in the contract law assignment, due to the fast growth of technology, several business organizations have transferred from the conventional mechanism of selling goods of the electronic mechanism of selling products.
Consumers could obtain several advantages because of online purchases, such as–
Convenience in online purchase: Consumers could buy goods from any place, which create shopping convenient and easy. Further, the cancellation option is also available to them so that they could cancel any transaction (Mahrous, &Abdelmaaboud, 2017). It could be said in the contract law assignmentthat, by the online purchase, consumers could save time as well as efforts, obtain a widevariety of goods, avail the excellentdiscount, obtain in-depth information of the goods, and many other.
No burden on shopping: Usually, in the physical stores, it has been observed that marketing executives try to influence the purchaser to purchase the goods. Thus, there could be some type of pressure, on the other side, in the online shopping; there is not any type of pressure on the consumers (Zhang, Wang, Wang, & He, 2018).
Comparisons: In this aspect, severalorganizations offered a wide range of goods to attract consumers with distinct taste and requirements. This enables the purchaser to select the goods from a variety of goods after the comparison of prices and features of the displayed goods.
Based on above aspects, it can be noted herein contract law assignment that, by the use of internet, goods could be purchased by consumers quickly and easily. Still, some individuals could use the internet or technology only in a restricted way. Further, there are some issues also faced by the individualsbecause of online purchasing such as sometimes delay in delivery due to lack of inventory management, lack of interactivity, lack of in-depth examinations, frauds, and many others (MacLean, 2016).
ELECTRONIC CONTRACT
What is the meaning of electronic contract outlined in the contract law assignment?
It could be noted in the contract law assignment that, since the internet is no more isolated only for communication or computing and evaluating data, online contracts are presently order of the day, and there is not any distinction among the online contract and offline contract (Canino, 2016). Therefore, online contracts are considered a valid contract, and all the rules of the contract would still apply. It can be said that E-contract is referred as any type of contract that has been formed during e-commerce activities through the communication of two or more than two people applying an electronic means, like e-mail, and the interaction of the person with the electronic agent like a program in the computer, or the interface of minimum two electronic agents, which are programmed to identify the existence of the contract. In the legal case of Trimex International FZE Limited, Dubai vsVendata Aluminum Ltd, it was held by the court that by the e-mails, the contract has been accepted by the parties unconditionally and therefore it was considered as a valid contract. Similarly, in the legal case of Adams v Lindsell, it has been held that acceptance provided by the e-mail is considered as legal acceptance. Therefore, it is clear on this contract law assignment thatthe contract is valid (Wakefield, & Le, 2017).
In addition to the above aspects, some types of electronic contract are explained below within the contract law assignment –
Clickwrapagreement:Clickwrap is the mechanism for entering into a legally binding agreement to legal documents. It suggests that the user has clicked on the “I Agree” to the terms and conditions or demonstrated that they haveexplicitly agreed in some way. One of the most significant cases of such type of agreement is Feldman V Google. It was held by the court that, reasonable notice of the terms and conditions is provided to the Feldman, and manifested consent to the agreement. Therefore clickwrap agreement was enforceable (Legal cases on Clickwrap. 2020). In this aspect, fiveessential elements for enforceable Clickwrap agreement are –
User should provide active,affirmative consent: It is required under the Clickwrap agreement that users should click on the “I Agree” to the terms before they could proceed with their requested services. For enhancement in the enforceability, it is needed to design the site in sucha way by which the user could not proceed without providing their consent. Provide a reasonable and prominent notice for terms of services: It is required under the cited agreement outlined in the contract law assignment that it should display prominently. Users should inform them regarding the terms and condition beforethe click. For enhancement in the enforceability, it is needed that host should use the words like “Terms of Services” written in bold letters so that users could identify whether they should click or not and language should be simple (Burunova, Ponomarev, &Teslya, 2019). Agreements should be esculent to the usual person: In this aspect, terms of services and other legal agreements in such a manner that someone without a background in privacy could read, comprehend, and provide informed consent to. Further, the agreement should include all the terms and condition which is needed to be recognized by the users.
Do not exploit inadequate bargaining:In this aspect, it is needed that, users should have the option regarding click on the button or leave the site. A person could not take benefit more than essential from the users. In other words, it can be said in this section of contract law assignment that abuse of power could lead towards unenforceability of clickwrap agreement.
Particular consent should be different from the rest of the document: For the enforceability of clickwrap agreement, particular consent is not contained within the whole document. It can be said that it is more likely that agreement would be enforceable when the terms and conditions are more precise and distinguishable (Ilobinso, 2017).
Shrinkwrap agreement: This is another type of electronic contract, which is referred to as lawful agreement, buying agreement or an undertaking built on packaged and shipped goods. In such type of agreements, goods are enclosed in shrink wrap, which suggests, it is implied that products could be viewed only by the individuals who purchase it. In other words, it can be said that, under the shrink wrap agreement, goods could be opened only after the purchase by the users. Along with this, this type of agreement may also consist of particular terms and conditions like prices of the goods, right to use, warranties, restriction, and some other aspects, as the case may be (Dasteel, 2017). Further, shirk wrap agreement has led towards several debates. The reason behind the same is that one of the conditions of such type of agreement is that inaccessibility of the condition of the agreement beforethe purchase of the goods. In the legal case, ProCD v Zeidenberg, it was held that such type of contract is enforceable, and in the case Klocek v. Gateway, Inc., it has been found in the contract law assignment that it is not enforceable. Thus, decisions are dividend on the question of consent, in which former case held that only objective consent is needed, while later needs that minimum possibility of subjective consent.
Browse wrap agreement: This type of agreement noted herein contract law assignment is referred to as the contract or the agreement of license including access to or using of the material provided on any website or products that are downloadable. The main objective of such type of agreement is to bind the agreement through virtue of the users browsing the website. Further, in contrast with clickwrap agreement, such type of agreement does not need any action taken by the users to provide his/her consent to bind (MacLean, 2017). Rather than this, terms and conditions of the browsewrap agreements shows that use of the website is considered as deemed acceptance provided by the user of agreement. It has been held by the court that terms and conditions of use reflected in this manner does not assist in the creation of enforceable contract unless it is demonstrated by the owner of the website that user possessed actual or constructive knowledge of the terms. In the legal case, Nghiem v Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc., it has been found in the contract law assignment that contract is not enforceable as a hyperlink to TOCs was placed at the bottom of the screen (The Enforceability of Website “Browse Wrap” Agreements. 2020).
REFERENCES
Burunova, A., Ponomarev, A., &Teslya, N. (2019, April).Enactable Electronic Contracts In E-Commerce: Models, Technologies And Architectures.contract law assignment In 2019 24th Conference of Open Innovations Association (FRUCT) (pp. 54-59). IEEE.
Canino, E. (2016). The Electronic Sign-in-Wrap Contract: Issues of Notice and Assent, the Average Internet User Standard, and Unconscionability. UCDL Rev., 50, 535.
Dasteel, J. H. (2017). Consumer click arbitration: a review of online consumer arbitration agreements. Arbitration Law Review, 9(1), 1-42.
Deka, P. K. (2017). A conceptual model for determining factors influencing online purchasing behavior. Journal of Management in Practice (Online Only), 2(1).
Ilobinso, I. (2017). Formation of Electronic Contracts: Melding the Traditional Contract Law with Contemporary Electronic Commerce. IhuomaIlobinso,‘Formation of Electronic Contracts: Melding the Traditional Contract Law with Contemporary Electronic Commerce, 2, 50-63.
Legal cases on Clickwrap.(2020). (Online). Retrieved from
MacLean, C. E. (2016). It Depends: Recasting Internet Clickwrap, Browsewrap, I Agree, and Click-through Privacy Clauses as Waivers of Adhesion. Clev. St. L. Rev., 65, 45.
MacLean, C. E. (2017). It depends: Recasting internet clickwrap, browsewrap,” I agree,” and click-through privacy clauses as waivers of adhesion. Cleveland State Law Review, 65(1), 43.
Mahrous, A. A., &Abdelmaaboud, A. K. (2017).Antecedents of participation in online brand communities and their purchasing behavior consequences. Service Business, 11(2), 229-251.
The Enforceability of Website “Browse Wrap” Agreements.(2020). (Online). Retrieved from
Wakefield, J., & Le, C. D. (2017). Contracts: Ensuring legal certainty in international electronic contracts. LSJ: Law Society of NSW Journal, (35), 86.
Zhang, Y., Wang, J., Wang, Y., & He, Y. (2018, May).Research on effect of virtual community internet interaction to online purchasing behavior.In 2018 4th international conference on information management (ICIM) (pp. 66-70).contract law assignment IEEE.
