The Ecuadorian Congress passed the Electronic Commerce, Electronic Signatures & Date Messages Law on April 17, 2002. The law seeks to regulate the increasing use of commerce and business conducted over the Internet in Ecuador while protecting the validity of contracts executed in electronic form.
This law, based on the UNCITRAL model, is broken into five principle sections.
The first section defines and regulates data messages and stipulates their legal implications. The law stipulates that electronic documents (as well as annexes and attachments thereto) have the same legal value as written paper documents. Confidentiality of text messages is protected under the law, which also provides sanctions for unauthorized use of electronic data. This law submits use of electronic data to the intellectual property laws of Ecuador.
