Not very long ago, it was an open question whether
an agreement entered over the Internet was an enforceable contract.
There were plenty of good reasons why such agreements shouldn’t be viewed
any differently than agreements on paper, but there were few laws or cases
that addressed the issue.
As consumers and businesses engage in billions of
dollars worth of business online, electronic commerce is hardly even news
anymore. Recent legislation, including the federal E-SIGN Act and the
state Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, remove any doubt that electronic
agreements and signatures are as enforceable as transactions on paper.
Still, the fact that electronic agreements may be
enforceable in principle does not mean that a particular agreement is
enforceable in practice. Here are five things you can do to increase the
odds that a court will enforce an electronic agreement.
