THE CONCEPT OF LEGAL REGULATION OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Аннотация

The social relations taking place in electronic commerce and the category “electronic commerce” are
studied, the qualifying features of this activity are identified, the correlation of the concepts “trade” and “electronic
commerce” is made and the author’s definition of the concept and subject of legal regulation of public relations in
the field of electronic commerce is developed.
Thus, electronic commerce is often considered as a special form of transactions, in which their conclusion and
execution is carried out using electronic means of communication. At the same time, the legal characteristics of
transactions remain unchanged, and they must be regulated by the rules of law that regulate relations of the
appropriate type (purchase-sale, transportation, contract, rent, etc.). According to this position, electronic data
exchange does not change the essence of the relationship between the parties and affects only the form in which
these relations are built. Within this approach, several points of view have been formed. A number of specialists
consider electronic commerce as the production, advertising, sale and distribution of goods using telecommunication
networks. Others interpret it as electronic business.
In the world practice, the term “trade” has also been widely interpreted so that it covers issues arising from all
relations of a commercial nature, both contractual and non-contractual. Trading relationship includes the transactions
as follows: any trade transactions for the supply of goods or services or the exchange of goods or services;
distribution agreements; commercial representation and agent relations, factoring; leasing; construction of industrial
facilities; consulting services; engineering; purchase and sale of licenses; investment; financing; banking services;
insurance; operating or concession agreements; joint ventures and other forms of industrial or business cooperation;
transportation of goods and passengers by air, sea, train or car. One should recognize that such a broad understanding
of trade does not contribute to a detailed study of this concept and it is not suitable in practice. Therefore, the
economic meaning of the term "trade" is widely spread in modern science. In a broad sense, trade is considered as a
branch of the national economy that ensures the circulation of goods, their movement from the sphere of production
to the sphere of circulation.
In a narrower sense, trade is defined as economic intermediation between producers and consumers which is
carried out by the purchase of goods from producers in order to sell them to consumers and their further sale to other
consumers.
Electronic commerce is proposed to understand the implementation of actions provided for by law, other
operations in the execution of transactions for the sale of goods, work and services based on electronic procedures by
the parties of the transaction. At the same time, it is proposed to understand electronic procedures as a special
procedure (rules, regulations) for electronic operations in a transaction, and electronic operation on a transaction as
performing certain actions by the parties to the transaction to execute the transaction through remote interaction of
the parties of the transaction, other entities and their information systems in electronic commerce.