E‐commerce: managing the legal risks Available to Purchase

E‐commerce plays an important role in today’s business environment, and that role will continue to grow each year. eMarketer predicts that by “2004, world wide e‐commerce revenues are expected to total USD 2.7 trillion”. E‐commerce continues to grow in the United States. “The Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that the estimate of U.S. retail e‐commerce sales for the first quarter of 2004, not adjusted for seasonal, holiday, and trading‐day differences, was $15.5 billion, an increase of 28.1 per cent (±2.9 per cent) from the first quarter of 2003.” “According to a new study by RoperASW and AOL Time Warner, Europeans spent on average EUR430 on line between August and October 2002.” This compares with an average spend of EUR543 per head in the US over the same period.