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10 Apr 2001, Denmark

Hi Dr. eCommerce

With regard to contracts, the E-commerce Directive sets forth the provision that the information Society service provider must acknowledge receipt of the order. But when do we have a contract on a B2B-market when we are talking catalogue, auction or exchange sales? It seems difficult for me to understand, besides the provisions in article 10 and 11 in the Directive on ecommerce, that the moment of formation of contract is dealt within the Directive.

Hope you can help

Cheers

Toke

Dear Toke:

I put your question to legal ace Hedwig Scholten, who responds:

"You have noticed correctly that the Electronic Commerce Directive does not specify at all at what time an electronic contract is deemed to be concluded. (It was integrated in a previous version but they later took it out). It is therefore determined by reference to Member States' laws. But in most Member States there is no special regulation in place so the general rules on contract law apply. I'm afraid you have to be aware of the different contract laws in the different Member States."

All the best,

Dr. Ecommerce