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The Best Ways

to Resolve Contractual Disputes in E-commerce

 

STUDENT PAPER

By Anwesha Bhattacharya

SKEMA Business School

Paris, France

 


 

ABSTRACT

The tremendous boom in the past decade in the world of internet has significantly demanded the need for strong resolution solutions for contractual disputes in the world of e-commerce. This paper follows the different ways to resolve these disputes and finally to come up with a fit that best suits the e-commerce disputes.

To lead us up to this solution many tools like root cause analysis, additive weighting technique, qualitative and quantitative analysis has been used and thus a solution that best fits the problem has been come up with.

Key words:      E-Commerce, E-contracts, Internet, Dispute resolution, Contracts, Management,

INTRODUCTION

In this growing world of the internet, the ‘online presence’ of any company has essentially become the pathway which shows if your business would flourish or die out. This undeniable involves e-commerce contracts which can be vaguely defined as “any contracts that you or your company sign with any technology service provider having anything to do with the internet is an e-commerce contract” [1]. Increasingly companies are turning towards this approach as it not only shows tremendous a growth but also helps a lot in terms of not having to acquire an actual shop. Many well-established companies like Nike, Sephora, H&M who have a lot of market hold and proper showroom also invest in their online shops because of the growing trend in this sector.

“It is defined as any business transaction that has been negotiated over an online system and where the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchange or contact”[2]. Most of the transactions are between the business and the customers (B2C), this could happen directly through the exact brand/company’s website or by third party websites like Amazon, Shein etc. “Electronic commerce draws on such technologies as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange EDI, inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems”[3]. “Data integrity and security are very hot and pressing issues for electronic commerce”[4].

These contracts include many attributes of the cyber law and also depends on the jurisdiction of that particular topography. As a result, there are usually disputes arising from the above stated set of complex conditions. For a business to customer transaction (B2C) the amount of shipment is generally restricted to a certain number of items per customer in the clause but disputes might arise in such overseas situations while dealing with business to business transactions (B2B) at the borders due to taxes or unforeseen situations.

The need of a proper e-commerce contracts is indirectly/indirectly related to project management these days as there is a rising demand for more and more product marketing and project marketing marketing/advertisement scope of the projects. Also, if a company decides to outsource or buy products through a company that is entirely based online then there arises a serious need for a good e-commerce contracts that is specific to the matter.

Understanding the causes for these disputes and a deeper realization of where the problem arises will shed some light to the methods or ways that it could be easily resolved. For this research I have visited many online law websites that specializes in e-contracts and its disputes. This has led to the  root cause analysis of this paper which is actually identifying the reasons for disputes in e-commerce.

More…

 

To read entire paper, click here

 

Editor’s note: Student papers are authored by graduate or undergraduate students based on coursework at accredited universities or training programs.  This paper was prepared as a deliverable for the course “International Contract Management” facilitated by Dr Paul D. Giammalvo of PT Mitratata Citragraha, Jakarta, Indonesia as an Adjunct Professor under contract to SKEMA Business School for the program Master of Science in Project and Programme Management and Business Development.  http://www.skema.edu/programmes/masters-of-science. For more information on this global program (Lille and Paris in France; Belo Horizonte in Brazil), contact Dr Paul Gardiner, Global Programme Director paul.gardiner@skema.edu.

How to cite this paper: Bhattacharya, A. (2019). The Best Ways to Resolve Contractual Disputes in E-commerce, PM World Journal, Vol. VIII, Issue IX, October.  Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/pmwj86-Oct2019-Bhattacharya-resolve-contractual-disputes-in-ecommerce.pdf

 


 

About the Author


Anwesha Bhattacharya

Paris, France

 

 

Anwesha Bhattacharya is currently pursuing Msc. in Project and Programme Management and Business Development from Skema Business School Paris. Having experience in Business development for about a year she is looking to further her career into project management field. She holds a bachelor’s degree Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India. She has completed internships in multiple cities in India for business development and has worked as a business developer cum analyst in Mumbai for 4 months before pursuing this degree.

Anwesha lives in Paris and can be contacted via e-mail at anwesha.bhattacharya@skema.edu

 

[1] Schaefer, E. (2012, January 05). What is an E-Commerce Contract? Retrieved October 23, 2018, from http://tcattorney.typepad.com/contracts/2012/01/what-is-an-e-commerce-contract.html

[2] L. (2018, October). Challenges of E Commerce to Traditional Contracts. Retrieved from https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/contract-law/challenges-of-e-commerce-to-traditional-contracts-contract-law-essay.php

[3] E-COMMERCE and E-CONTRACT. (2018, April 17). Retrieved from https://www.legalbites.in/e-commerce-e-contract/

[4] E-COMMERCE and E-CONTRACT. (2018, April 17). Retrieved from https://www.legalbites.in/e-commerce-e-contract/