Various types of e-contracts
The present era is known as a cyber and a digital era. With the rapid technological developments, various industrial sectors are also developing day by day. All the businesses want to develop a consumer-friendly relationship with their customers to extract maximum profits.
The relationship between the consumer and the businesses are mostly tied up with some legal obligations and rights. These Rights and obligations are based upon the contract between the parties.
In the laymen's perspective Contracts and Agreements are considered as synonyms, but in the legal sense, the effect of agreements and contracts are different. An agreement is considered to be a promise between the parties to agreeing upon something which is not legally binding/enforceable.
Whereas the Contact is an agreement which is enforceable by law. This is the reason why it is said that all agreements are not contracts but all contracts are agreements. People often get confused between the two terms and seek advocate advice online
Agreements which are enforceable by law are known as Contracts. To make an enforceable agreement which falls under the ambit of Contract Act following conditions mentioned under Section 10 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 must be satisfied:
1. Offer and acceptance: To make an enforceable agreement it is essential conditions that a proposal/offer must be made by one party and the same proposal must be accepted by the other party to a contract.
2. Competency: Competency is meant by the ability to form a contract and the essential element of competency under the Indian Contract Act, 1872 are as follows;
a. The person forming a contract must have attained the age of the majority, that means the person must have completed the age of 18 years.
b. The person forming a contract must be mentally fit at the time of signing the contract.
c. The person must not be barred by law to form a contract.
3. There must be a lawful consideration, and consideration is meat by "something in return" and the consideration must not be illegal in nature.
4. The must be a lawful object of the contract.
5. There must be free consent of the parties, that is to say the consent of the parties should not be obtained by force, coercion, undue influence.
6. The contracts which are made must not expressly be barred by law.
E-Contracts:
Traditionally the contracts are known as the piece of papers having legal force, but nowadays as the internet is developing, now contracts are also formed online. Contracts which are in electronic forms are known as E-Contracts. These contracts are convenient to the companies, who have to form contracts at large scale because the E-Contracts are inexpensive and time-saving. Best lawyers India are found giving different opinion about the new forms of contracts available online.
Generally, there are three types of E-Contracts, as follows;
Shrink Wrap Contracts: These contracts are packed with the products and the usage of the particular products is deemed as an acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Contract. The user always has the option of returning the software if the new terms are not to his liking for a full refund. These contracts are generally containing in the CD Rom or software, and using of the CD Rom is considered as an acceptance of such terms and conditions.
Click Wrap Contracts: A click wrap Contract is mostly found as a part of a software. These agreements are rigid in nature and there is no chance of negotiation in it. Because the user of such software has only two options, that is to agree and use that particular software or to disagree with terms and conditions and not to use that particular software.
Browse Wrap Contracts: A browse wrap agreements are generally found in a website or a downloadable product, these contracts are published on a particular webpage and user have to find these terms and conditions by browsing to that particular web page. Because generally these contracts are hidden.
