Jurisdictional Challenges in E-Commerce

The rapid development in information and communications technologies and the global nature of the Internet have seen both small and large businesses strive to establish their presence online in order to remain viable and competitive. This development has led to a paradigm shift from the physically oriented commercial environment to the more technology and internet driven environment giving birth to e-commerce. According to definition by WTO e-commerce is understood to mean the production, distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods and services by electronic means. E-commerce has enabled companies to sell goods and services to customers located anywhere globally without having to establish their presence in those locations. This presents a problem in so far as jurisdictional laws and regulations are concerned because in traditional and conventional commerce, a company must have some physical ties to a country or a state for it to be subjected to that country's or state's laws. This theory does not hold with e-commerce particularly where a company sells its goods and services on the Internet to global customers who are outside the country or state where the company's web site and server is located. Given the nature of e-commerce as being global, borderless, virtual and anonymous, the issue of jurisdiction can be a sticky and murky business. This paper discusses jurisdictional challenges brought by the development of e-commerce especially where disputes arise between businesses and individuals in cross-border transactions.