This document defines e-commerce as buying and selling of goods and services over electronic networks like the Internet. It involves buyers, sellers, and producers. Key elements of e-commerce include products/services, marketing, order acceptance systems, payment systems, delivery, returns, and customer support. Types include business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer, and consumer-to-business. Issues relate to access, security, trust, and consumer protection. Advantages are convenience and time savings while disadvantages are security, accessibility, and trust. Indian law recognizes e-commerce through the Information Technology Act of 2000.

1. E-COMMERCE

2. DEFINITION
 E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and
services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over
an electronic network, primarily the Internet.
 Participants of e-commerce:
- Buyer
- Seller
- Producer

3. ELEMENTS OF E-COMMERCE
1. Product or service
2. Place from which product has to be sold
3. Marketing
4. System for acceptance of orders
5. System for acceptance of money, e.g. online
billing desk
6. Delivery of product
7. Return procedure
8. Customer grievance redressal

4. TYPES OF E-COMMERCE
 B2B – Business to business
 B2C – Business to consumer
 C2C – Consumer to consumer
 C2B – Consumer to business

5. ISSUES RELATING TO E-COMMERCE
 Access Issues:
 Availability of technology
 Consumer awareness
 Security issues:
 Confidentiality
 Secure epayment
 Trust issues:
 Identity of seller
 Uncertainty of prices
 Consumer Protection issues:
 Timely delivery
 Quality and quantity according to description
 Effective grievance redressal system

6. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES
 Advantages
 Convenience
 Ease of access
 Simple procedure
 Saving time and resources
 Disadvantages
 Security
 Accessibility
 Trust

7. LEGAL ASPECTS OF E-COMMERCE
 E-commerce has been legally recognized in India
by the Information Technology Act 2000.
 The Act provides for the recognition of electronic
records so as to facilitate commercial transactions
via the internet or any other electronic means
 It also provides for digital signature which provides
authentication to electronic records and also
identifies the source of any record

8. UNCITRAL MODEL
 The Model Law on Electronic Commerce purports
to enable and facilitate commerce conducted using
electronic means by providing national legislators
with a set of internationally acceptable rules aimed
at removing legal obstacles and increasing legal
predictability for electronic commerce. In particular,
it is intended to overcome obstacles arising from
statutory provisions that may not be varied
contractually by providing equal treatment to paper-
based and electronic information. Such equal
treatment is essential for enabling the use of
paperless communication, thus fostering efficiency
in international trade.

9. KEY PROVISIONS
 The model law sought to adopt the fundamental
principles of non-discrimination, technological
neutrality and functional equivalence that are widely
regarded as the founding elements of modern
electronic commerce law.
 Rules for the formation and validity of contracts
concluded by electronic means, for the attribution of
data messages, for the acknowledgement of receipt
and for determining the time and place of dispatch
and receipt of data messages

10. NON-DISCRIMINATION
 The principle of non-discrimination ensures that a
document would not be denied legal effect, validity
or enforceability solely on the grounds that it is in
electronic form.

11. TECHNOLOGICAL NEUTRALITY
 The principle of technological neutrality mandates
the adoption of provisions that are neutral with
respect to technology used. In light of the rapid
technological advances, neutral rules aim at
accommodating any future development without
further legislative work.

12. FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE
 The functional equivalence principle lays out criteria
under which electronic communications may be
considered equivalent to paper-based
communications. In particular, it sets out the
specific requirements that electronic
communications need to meet in order to fulfil the
same purposes and functions that certain notions in
the traditional paper-based system - for example,
"writing," "original," "signed," and "record"- seek to
achieve

13.  MORE TO COME...