E-Commerce: The Role of Electronic Messages and Documents
Elena Anatolyevna Kirillova1, Varvara Vladimirovna Bogdan2, Valentin Nikolaevich Tkachev3, Konstantin Borisovich Semenin4, Petr Martynovich Filippov5
1Elena Anatolyevna Kirillova, Russian Federation Southwest State University, Kursk, Russia.
2Varvara Vladimirovna Bogdan, Russian Federation Southwest State University, Kursk, Russia.
3Valentin Nikolaevich Tkachev, Russian. Federation Southwest State University, Kursk, Russia.
4Konstantin Borisovich Semenin, Russian Federation Southwest State University, Kursk, Russia.
5Petr Martynovich Filippov, Chechen State University, Grozny, Russia.
Manuscript received on 17 April 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 24 April 2019 | Manuscript published on 30 April 2019 | PP: 579-583 | Volume-8 Issue-6, April 2019 | Retrieval Number: E3026038519/19©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: The role and presumptive evidence of electronic messages used in the conclusion of online contracts are considered in this article. The legal significance of electronic messages is beyond question, since this institution has long and successfully been used in contractual obligations of all countries of the world. The main objective of the study is to determine the legal status of electronic messages in electronic commerce and the possibility of using them as evidence in court. The method of collecting and studying of the isolated facts; the method of generalization; the scientific abstraction methods; the methods of patterns cognition, as well as the method of objectivity, concreteness, and pluralism are used herein. It is concluded in the study that the specificity of electronic messages (the existence in an intangible (digital) form, the ease of changing the text, the presence of an unlimited number of originals, the possibility of making a hard copy) makes it possible to consider them as a special form of presentation of the information, along with oral and written forms and having a special legal status – the electronic form. It is proposed to stipulate in the international legal acts the imperative norm obliging the persons offering goods and services via the Internet to provide the access to electronic documents and communications containing contractual terms for six months, provided that the party, violating this norm, shall lose the right to demand the enforcement of contractual terms. As a result of the analysis, it is proved that the documents received via facsimile, electronic or other communication, including using the Internet, as well as the documents signed with an electronic digital signature or another analogue of a personal signature, are allowed as written evidence in court, pursuant to identity verification of the electronic messages. If it is impossible to determine the author of the message reliably and establish the integrity of the text, electronic messages do not have an evidential presumption. Such a conclusion opens up for law enforcement practice, first of all judicial, a unique opportunity to use electronic messages as evidence.
Keyword: e-Commerce; Legally Relevant Messages; Electronic Documents; Seller; Customer; Electronic Digital Signature; Transaction.
Scope of the Article: e-Commerce