The company’s identity including address;
The main features of the goods or services;
Prices information, including tax and, if appropriate, delivery costs;
The period for which the offer or price remains valid;
Payment, delivery and fulfilment performance arrangements;
Right of the consumer to withdraw, i.e. cancellation terms;
The minimum duration of the contract and whether the contract for the supply of
products or services is to be permanent or recurrent, if appropriate;
Whether an equivalent product or service might be substituted, and confirmation as
to whether the seller pays the return costs in this event.
After the contract has been entered into, the supplier is required to provide written
confirmation of the information provided. An e-mail confirmation is now legally bind-
ing provided both parties have agreed that e-mail is an acceptable form for the contract.
It is always advisable to obtain an electronic signature to confirm that both parties have
agreed the contract, and this is especially valuable in the event of a dispute. The default
position for services is that there is no cancellation right once services begin.
3 Making and accepting payment
For transactional e-commerce sites, the relevant laws are those referring to liability between
a credit card issuer, the merchant and the buyer. Merchants need to be aware of their liabil-
ity for different situations such as the customer making a fraudulent transaction.
4 Authenticating contracts concluded over the Internet
‘Authentication’ refers to establishing the identity of the purchaser. For example, to help
prove a credit card owner is the valid owner, many sites now ask for a 3-digit authentica-
tion code which is separate from the credit card number. This helps reduce the risk of
someone buying fraudulently who has, for instance, found a credit card number from a
traditional shopping purchase. Using digital signatures is another method of helping to
prove the identity of purchasers (and merchants).
5 E-mail risks
One of the main risks with e-mail is infringing an individual’s privacy. Specific laws have
been developed in many countries to reduce the volume of unsolicited commercial e-
mail or spam, as explained in the previous section on privacy.
A further issue with e-mail is defamation. This is where someone makes a statement
that is potentially damaging to an individual or a company. A well-known example from
2000 involved a statement made on the Norwich Union Healthcare internal e-mail
system in England which was defamatory towards a rival company, WPA. The statement
falsely alleged that WPA was under investigation and that regulators had forced them to
stop accepting new business. The posting was published on the internal e-mail system to
various members of Norwich Union Healthcare staff. Although this was only on an
internal system, it was not contained and became more widespread. WPA sued for libel
and the case was settled in an out-of-court settlement when Norwich Union paid
£415,000 to WPA. Such cases are relatively rare.
LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES OF INTERNET USAGE