E-commerce contract and laws of Bangladesh | Cyber Law -03

Today we will discuss the e-commerce concept in respect of the present laws of Bangladesh. Before naming any laws of Bangladesh we should know two concepts.

  1. Functional Equivalence and,
  2. Technology Neutrality.
  1. Functional Equivalence: It simply means that the function must be equivalent with each other, in this case, the function of contract (written / non-electronic) must be on the same footing of electronic contract ( electronic / e-commerce), the law should treat both methods of contract equally.
  2. Technology Neutrality: Here also the nondiscrimination principle comes again but in the matter of various available technologies, for example; both WhatsApp and Viber provides the same service, law should not tell the user what to use or what not. And section 5(2) of Information and Communication Technology Act 2006 confirms the Technology Neutrality.

The Bangladeshi act seeks to remove legal impediments so that electronic systems can be used and accepted as like the analogue system and method without any hassle. Basically, our law is based on Unicitral Model Law on electronic commerce. The full abbreviation of which is “United Nations Commission on International Trade Law”

Let’ see how the laws of Bangladesh validate the electronic transaction and make it equivalent and set in legal regime.

Information and Communication Technology Act 2006.

Section 6. Where the law provides that information or any other matter shall be written, that information or matter can be written or made available in electronic form (can be done using an electronic method.) Provided that, it shall accessible and usable for a subsequent reference.

Here, this section removes a legal impediment that things should be written on paper (hard copy) and accepted any electronic form.

Section 7. Legal recognition of digital signature (we will discuss digital signature to our next tutorial soon). Where the provides that, any information or matter shall be affixed by signature it can be affixed by a digital signature. And this section allows digital signature instead of a handwritten one.

Section 5. It simply said that if the law requires any signature of a person, the digital signature shall have the same power, that person can use his digital signature instead of a handwritten one on any electronic record (data).

Section 15. This section provides;

The time and place of dispatch (from which the message (data) is sent) and the time and place of receipt (data) should be recorded.

Time of dispatch: When the (data) is sent outside the control of the sender.

Time of receipt:

  • If any designated system is there:
    • when the data entered that system
  • If sent to any non-designated system, then when the data is retrieved by the system.

This section actually clears the matters of postal rule, as we know it is a very important issue in a contract.

Legal recognition of electronic record under – Public Procurement Act 2006.

Under Section 2 (31), Here the definition of “In written” means and includes, Any communication written by hand or machine duly signed and includes properly authenticated messages by facsimile (copy machine) or electronic mail.

Note. Here data, electronic record, message, information are made equal for easy understanding, please do understand them separately for practical use. Go through all the sections of Information Communication Technology Act 2006 especially the definition section (2) and use the help of Internet. I used the essence of the section not complete text or detailed.

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Rayhanul Islam

Advocate Rayhanul Islam is the founder and Editor in Chief of Law Help BD. He is also a researcher. Critical thinking is his main focus. He is on a quest to bring positive change to the legal sector of Bangladesh. He promotes legal knowledge and human rights concept to the root level. e-mail: [email protected]

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1 Response

  1. Md.Rukunuzzaman says:

    Very fine

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