THE E-COMMERCE LEGAL ENVIRONMENT Bangkok, November, 2002 David Marsh

Legal Issues E-COMMERCE DEFINED  “Electronic commerce covers any form of business or administrative transaction or information exchange that is executed using any information and communications technology”

Legal Issues DEMATERIALISATION  Ease of reproduction  Difficulty of detecting alteration  Absence of originality  Anonymity of source

Legal Issues LANGUAGE IN STATUTES  Document  Writing  Signature  Instrument

Legal Issues COMMUNICATION I  Face to face  Post  Telegraph/telegram  Telephone  Telex

Legal Issues COMMUNICATION II  Fax  EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)   The internet

Legal Issues THE ROLE OF THE UN  UNCTAD  UNCITRAL  UN/CEFACT

Legal Issues TECHNICAL STANDARDS  TRADACOMS  UN/EDIFACT  ANSI X 12  HTML  XML  Eb/XML  OASIS

Legal Issues LEGAL SYSTEMS  Common law  Civil or Roman law  Scandinavian law  European Law

Legal Issues TYPES OF SOLUTIONS  Contractual  Legislative  Self regulatory  International convention

Legal Issues INTERNATIONAL ISSUES  Contractual forms  Technical Standards  Data Protection  E-Commerce IP issues  Security and cryptology  Criminal issues

Legal Issues THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST  Facilitation  Regulation

Legal Issues SECURITY  Technical security  Commercial security  Legal security  National security

Legal Issues SECURITY II  Monitoring  Intercept capability  Service provider “black boxes”  Commercial cost  Tipping off  Lawful business practice

Legal Issues SIGNATURES  Requirements of form  Mechanical signatures  Intention to sign  Proof  The EU Digital Signatures Directive  National legislation

Legal Issues VALID SIGNATURES!

Legal Issues ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES  Standardisation of technology  Recognition of root authorities  Harmonisation of commercial codes  Modernisation of enforcement procedures

Legal Issues INTERCHANGE AGREEMENTS  TPAs  long term relationships  repeatable dataflows  secure payment  agreed standards  call-off processes

Legal Issues UN/CEFACT RECOMMENDATIONS  Recommendation 26 - TPAs  Recommendation 31 - Contract formation  Recommendation 32 - Codes of conduct  Current work —Certification authority standards —ODR —ebXML legal issues

Legal Issues FISCAL ISSUES  “…… should we tax the internet?”  “How should we tax the internet?”  Direct and indirect taxes  International aspects of taxation

Legal Issues DATA PROTECTION  Data protection EU directive  Registration  Personal data  Consent  Confidentiality  Proper use  Correction of errors

Legal Issues OTHER CURRENT ISSUES  Hacking  Spamming  Viruses  Bombing

Thank you for listening Questions DAVID MARSH