Electronic commerce

From MicroJustice

The rapid growth of electronic commerce increases the potential for conflicts over contracts which have been entered into online. For example, conflicts about price, late delivery and most common one are about defects and specifications. The future growth of e-commerce depends on providing consumers and businesses with greater confidence, which in turn necessitates a possibility to access justice and a predictable outcome of disputes arising in the online environment. Thus, the use of online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanims to resolve such e-commerce conflicts is essential for building consumer confidence and allowing access to justice in an online business environment. The use of the Internet and the World Wide Web in dispute resolution has an impact on the types of communication implied in the relevant processes (negotiation, mediation and arbitration), and involves new security issues such as the integrity and confidentiality of sensible data and communication mechanisms used to transmit and store this data. One solution to handle such disputes related to e-commerce is to use, rather than traditional court litigation, alternative online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanisms. Resolving disputes over the Internet is likely to play an important role in the future of electronic commerce.