Internet Contract Law?

What is a contract Law? What is a contract? A contract is any agreement between two or more parties. And a contract law is the formal agreement between these two or more parties and tends to make any agreement amongst parties legal. A contract law can cover many aspects such as a sale of certain goods such as properties, rent or hire purchases of certain goods and services such as renting an apartment or buying a car from the bank, contracts of employment, and many more. The purpose of a contract law is to insure that both parties complies to the agreement made, if any of these parties does not comply to the contract agreement, the other party is liable to take action by reporting to the courts and either force the defaulting party to carry out is promise or demand compensation in the form of damages. For example, a person can be agreed upon a contract when renting an apartment, the owner and the tenant shall sign upon a legal document, with stated terms & conditions, if any of these terms are broken by any of the parties, than the other party can take him to court for legal action. In other words the contract law creates a legal binding promise between the parties involved. It is a form of protecting each other from damages that might occur due to unethical practices. A contract law consists of elements such as offer & acceptance, Intentions to create Legal Relations, considerations, certainty, legality, legal capacity and free consent.

Let us examine contracts in regards with e-transactions. There are certain legal framework presented in the electronic commerce section. It has become a global trend to shop online, and the question, is an internet contract enforceable? Author Jonathan Frieden answers this question in his article, "Is an internet contract enforcebale?". According to him, "Though the Internet is fairly new, the enforceability of Internet contracts is governed by the well-established legal principles which apply to traditional written contracts. To form an enforceable contract, two or more parties must mutually assent to the terms of the contract and the contract itself must be supported by some consideration."

He says that this contract law over the internet is divided into 3 categories, and each being treated differently by the courts. The first category, shrink-wrap agreements, are agreements named for the license agreements contained in the packaging of commercial software products. Online, these contracts provide notice that continued use of the site will constitute the user's agreement to the site's terms and conditions. If proper written agreements are present to the website user, than only is this enforceable by law. The second category is click-wrap agreements, many commercial websites offer a terms and conditions notice to users before they purchase any product or service, by approving this terms & conditions, one is binded into the stated agreements. And under this condition does the traditional contract law principles apply. The last category is the is the browse-wrap agreements, these are terms & conditions which are purport to bind any user visit to the website. And by visiting this website, one is already binded with the browse-wrap agreements and does require further approval from the user.

Although these laws are present, author Jonathan Frieden says that "subject to traditional contract principles, click-wrap agreements are generally enforceable and browse-wrap agreements are very difficult to enforce. Shrink-wrap agreements lie somewhere in between, though recent case law supports their enforceability." A proper legal framework over the internet is yet absent in many countries and governments, businesses and consumers must be careful.

Jonathan Frieden

(reference: Is an internet contract enforceable? by Jonathan Frieden)