Digital commerce

There is no universally accepted definition of electronic commerce (or e-commerce). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines e-commerce as follows:

‘An e-commerce transaction is the sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer networks by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing of orders. The goods or services are ordered by those methods, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the goods or services do not have to be conducted online. An e-commerce transaction can be between enterprises, households, individuals, governments, and other public or private organisations. To be included are orders made in web pages, extranet or electronic data interchange. The type is defined by the method of placing the order. To be excluded are orders made by telephone calls, facsimile or manually typed e-mail.’

In this subtopic we examine the most common legal issues associated with online commerce in the EU, the legal considerations which arise as a result of trading online and other specific issues which the digital era presents more generally for businesses operating online.

Tracking EU digital commerce developments

The EU has set itself

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