Electronic commerce and contractual obligations

Summary:

The rules on electronic commerce lie at the heart of Directive 2000/31/EC on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the internal market, which lays down provisions on the establishment and information requirements applicable to information society service providers and on the liability of intermediary service providers.

However, electronic commerce affects a variety of areas of economic life falling outside the ambit of that directive, such as games of chance, questions relating to agreements or practices governed by cartel law and taxation (see Article 1(5) of the Directive on electronic commerce concerning the directive’s objective and scope). Similarly, copyright and related rights, trade mark rights, consumer protection and the protection of personal data fall within the realm of electronic commerce but are governed by a set of specific directives and regulations.

This fact sheet provides an overview of the relevant case-law. To that end, it divides the main judgments covering this range of areas into two parts, one relating to aspects of contractual obligations between parties and the other the limits on electronic commerce.