Electronic commerce law

The subject is designed to give students an overview of issues involved in electronic commerce law from international perspective with a special focus on EU law. The course will be divided into three parts: (1) E-commerce law (2) Intellectual property and (3) Privacy in the online world.

From the perspective of sources of law, a special attention will be drawn to the directive on electronic commerce, directive on privacy and electronic communications, directive on electronic signatures, directive on protection of electronic databases and the directive on copyright protection in the Information Society.

A candidate who has successfully completed the subject should: 1. Have an understanding of the business, legal and technical aspects of B2B and B2C electronic commerce 2. Have a good understanding of legal issues surrounding Internet based commerce, including EU and other legal frameworks for e-commerce Principal topics include: history of the Internet and electronic commerce; discussion of the most important business models for Internet commerce; country of origin principle and its impact on information society services withing the EU; information requirements for online business; online marketing; online contracts and electronic signatures; consumer protection with respect to distance contracts; liability of telecommunication service providers for Internet access, data transfer, caching as well as liability of hosting service providers for content stored, including user-generated content; fair use, DRM, protection of databases and computer programs and other copyright issues; privacy problems.