International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues

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2016 The Principles of the Consumer Right Protection in Electronic Trade A Comparative Law Analysis[#352615]-363538

4. DISCUSSION
The term “electronic trade” was first coined in the middle of
the 1990s, in connection with the new possibility of carrying
out buying and selling transactions via the Internet. There is
a narrow and a broad meaning of the term “electronic trade”.
In the narrow meaning, it is advertising and sales of goods by
means of telecommunication networks that is understood under
electronic trade (Lee and Phang, 2015). In the broad sense of the
term, electronic trade means a wider range of functions that are
not limited to buying and selling transactions. According to the
definition of the UN Commission on the Law in International
Trade, by means of electronic trade, a variety of transactions
can be performed: Those of buying and selling, of supplying,
as well as factoring, leasing, consulting, engineering, and other
transactions in the sphere of industrial and business cooperation
(Alyoubi, 2015).
Many researchers justly note that the online consumers must
be guaranteed the effective protection that is not less than the
protection provided to the offline consumers. They have revealed
three major problems of the online consumers that are the most
alarming: The anonymity of the sellers, who can be difficult to
trace; the impossibility for the consumer to check the products
and the labels, and obstacles to settling disputes (Taylor et al.,
2004). It can be noted that the need in disclosing the information
on business operators in the Internet trade, on the products
and services they offer, and on the terms and conditions of the
transactions is growing. Experts revealed a need in the mechanisms
that would confirm and guarantee that consumers, who are clicking
their mouse on a web-site, would not end up bound by terms of
a contract that they did not intend to conclude. The consumer
right advocates also insist on the right to cancel an order, on
the protection to do with the delivery of a product, and on the
appropriate distribution of the risk of loss that is dependent on
the technology of identification (Purnhagen and Meulen, 2016).
The innovative initiatives of the private sector, on solving the
consumers’ problems, could be especially highlighted – including
certification programs, the codes of conduct within an industry,
and insurance programs. Some lawyers argue whether these
efforts of industries are sufficient for solving the problems,
however, they realize the value of these business practices that
stimulate making decisions on the basis of being informed and
on the basis of trust of consumers to electronic trade (Hale and
McNeal, 2011).
The most difficult problem is introducing an effective system of
applied legislation and jurisdiction. Many experts give reasons
in favor of “the country of origin” structure, when companies are
subject only to the legislation and the court judgements of their
own country, regardless of the location of the buyers (Kaustia and
Rantapuska, 2015). The advocates of this approach support it as
the best resolution of the problems of business operators to do with
the difficulties of application of the current legislation to electronic
trade, with the unpredictability of the legislative environment
of operation, and with the high costs of meeting the legislation
requirements that can prevent the start-up of small and medium-
sized companies in a market. Others support the approach of “the
country of destination,” when consumers would be protected by
the laws, law-administration bodies and the courts of their own
countries. The supporters of this approach argue that it will provide
effective protection to consumers, and the possibility of regressive
redress (Alexandru and Cristina, 2013).
One can draw the conclusion that an alternative form of settling
disputes should be defined that would provide a practical
solution, achievable in the short-term period, because even if
buyers will be able to sue foreign business operators in the courts
of their countries, applying the local law, trials on the Internet
transactions to do with low sums of money do not make much
practical or economic sense. Even if a national court would make

Kirillova, et al.: The Principles of the Consumer Right Protection in Electronic Trade: A Comparative Law Analysis
International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues |
Vol 6 • Special Issue (S2) • 2016
121
a decision in favor of a consumer, it would be difficult, if not
impossible, to achieve its execution abroad (Strzębicki, 2015).
The initiatives of the private sector that offer the consumers a
tangible assess to just and effective compensation can suggest
a practical solution in the short-term period. There is a number
of perspective programs, already in implementation, that help
to solve the disputes of the online consumers – such programs
as an intermediary in the online, the programs of blocking and
the overdraft on credit cards.
There has to be taken effort aimed at the convergence of
the effective legislation in the area of the consumer right
protection, at the development of coordination and information
exchange among the law-administrating bodies in consumer
right protection, and in the work on achieving agreements on
recognizing and providing the execution of court judgments on
consumer right protection cases at the international level.
A number of new concepts should be introduced into the legislative
practice by the corresponding international conventions. The
central among them is the concept of “electronic trade.” It appears
to be correct to differentiate electronic trade and the trade via the
internet, which are related as a part and a whole, and electronic
trade is a bigger concept and a kind of entrepreneurial activity, in
the process of which the subjects of law conclude, change, execute
and end contracts, by means of exchanging electronic messages.
The trade via the Internet is an entrepreneurial activity, conducted
by means of exchanging electronic messages, but, here, already
via the information and telecommunications network, called “the
internet”; it does not have to be a special kind of entrepreneurial
activity in the case, when the internet infrastructure is used by
the commercial bodies exclusively as a means of communication.
In this case, it is appropriate to talk only about a special kind of
conducting entrepreneurial activity in the territory of the internet.
A number of authors understand under electronic trade not only
entrepreneurial activity, but also any other economic activity
that is closely related to it and is not prohibited, and conducted
in electronic form. The interaction instrument of the participants
of the privities in question are the electronic means of network
communication (Xu and Yuan, 2009). This position appears to be
more exact and well-reasoned.

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