Legal features of contracts concluded by electronic means

Abstract

Electronic commercial transactions have been particularly widespread in the business environment, which has led to an acceleration in the widespread adoption of computers, making them indispensable tools in all commercial operations. Concomitantly with the evolution of electronic transactions, the Internet has also marked a scale of evolution, without which, economic agents would not have been able to develop this industry of trading by electronic means. However, the effective implementation of these technological tools has also encountered legislative barriers and ambiguity regarding the legal recognition of electronic transactions. In this respect, a reconsideration of the legal framework has been necessary to ensure a smooth integration of new technologies into commercial practices and to strengthen confidence in their legal effects. In relation to the conclusion of a contract by electronic means, it can be defined as “an agreement of wills between two or more persons to create, modify or terminate a legal relationship, expressed in electronic form”, capturing “on the one hand, the proximate genus, represented by the contract as an agreement to create, modify or terminate a legal relationship, and on the other hand, the specific difference, a difference which consists in the (electronic) form of expression of the concordant wills”. The scope of contracts in electronic form is limited to those contracts materialized in the form of documents in electronic form. All other situations in which the will of a contracting party is expressed by means of an electronic data-processing tool are covered by electronic commerce.