Consumer Protection in E-commerce Transactions: a First Comparison between European Law and Islamic Law

A version of this paper was published in Complex 3/06 - Sylvia M. Kierkegaard (ed.): Legal, privacy and security issues in information technology

Salvatore Mancuso1

1. Introduction.

The Internet, born and first used as means to exchange knowledge and information between institutions and research centres, or between cultural and research centres, has become also a major instrument for business activities through the exchange of tangible and intangible assets and services. Therefore we are witnessing a progressive placement side by side of a virtual market and the traditional market.

Figures are significant: according to a rough estimate, "Starting from basically zero in 1995, total (global) electronic commerce is estimated at some $26 billion for 1997; it is predicted to reach $330 billion in 2001-02 and $1 trillion in 2003-05"2. In the European Union, similar estimates are in line with such predicted growth calculating an on-line revenue from € 3.5 billion in 1999 to about €45 billion in 20023. While at the beginning around 85% of the e-commerce transactions were business to business, the ratio is rapidly changing in favour of the business to consumer transactions, as purchasing goods and services on-line can benefit consumers through a wider choice and lower prices, while suppliers, and in particular small and medium-sized businesses, can have access to greater market opportunities relatively cheaply4.

Different product sectors earned great success in electronic distribution. The success of the electronic transactions using internet is based on the opportunity for the customer to approach a wide range of offer without the constraint of business hours, the ease of comparing simultaneously diff...

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