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6 Feb 2001, Portugal

Dr. Ecommerce,

Can you please inform me about the legal framework applicable to
online auction sites?

Thanking you in advance for your information,

Mariana

Dear Mariana:

I asked European legal bright-spark Corinna Schulze to answer your question and she has:

"There is no special legal framework or an European Directive on online auctions but it can be summarised under 'electronic contracts' which means that, for example, the 'E-Commerce Directive' is applicable. Most of all you have to be aware of national legislation which differs from Member State or, even worse, court decisions because there is no legislation in place yet. There large differences concerning issues such as: whether on-line auctions are allowed at all; or when the offers made by the auctioneer are binding.

To give you a short overview:

A French Court ruled that the French law on the monopoly of
auctioneers applied to online auction sales and that the sales that
had been organised by a private company infringed the French Law.

A regional German appeal court ruled in one decision that on-line auctions lead to a binding sales contract. It was held that the auctioneer is bound by his offer from the moment when his website is accessible to bidders and the auctioneer has to inform himself about the details and juridical particulars of on-line auctions.

In the UK, a website accessible to bidders is not considered as a
binding offer. A Court ruled that even if you indicated a wrong price for a product on your website and you have already received offers from bidders you can still refuse to conclude a contract."

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce