ABSTRACT
Development of commerce over the Internet has been rapid. It has obvious advantages from a commercial point of view, both in the extent to which it can be automated and in the wide range of potential customers to which it gives easy access. This chapter considers the legal issues raised by contracting online. It begins with general considerations that need to be borne in mind when designing an e-commerce site. The chapter also considers how agreement is proved in this context, and how the terms of any Internet contract are determined. It then considers matters of legal form and methods of payment. The chapter reviews dispute settlement, considering first the jurisdictional and choice of law rules likely to apply, and then arbitration agreements. Finally, it considers two special cases: consumer contracts, and contracts made through intermediary sites such as eBay.
