Electronic transactions in Lebanon. (c2019)

Abstract

If the middle of the eighteenth century gave birth to the industrial revolution, the end of the twentieth has brought the telecommunication revolution upon us, and humanity witnessed the outburst of media and telecommunication spread to dominate all aspects of our lives. The ever-growing ripple effect of the introduction of the internet, smart phones, and social media still resonate nowadays and participate into the modernisation of our daily lives. This advancement has influenced the entire world and intervened in every aspect of the economy imposing its methods on the already established approaches and models. The offspring of both business and technology is the online business that is currently booming and evolving, interfering with our way of shopping, marketing, and consuming, this business needs a solid foundation to flourish and produce revenues and benefits for the economy and society. Apart from the fact that this type of business needs a technologically advanced infrastructure, it also needs a solid foundation in the Legal and Judicial systems. Lebanon has always been a pioneering country in the region when it comes to Legal advancement and it has always produced the best of Legal literature, and its judicial system is one of the last unbiased honorable systems in the region. Following its habit of excellence and despite their relative tardiness in keeping up with the international demarche, the Lebanese Legal environment can and should be ready to receive an update to accommodate to this new situation. During the realization of this thesis, the Lebanese Parliament crowned twenty years of efforts by finally passing the “Electronic transactions and personal data law” number 81 for the year 2018. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the dark corners of this field, highlighting the problems that might emerge in the daily use of this new business model, studying the new legislation and suggesting amendments and solutions where needed to insure its steady use and to capitalize on its benefits while eliminating its disadvantages. This study is based on the observations of a total of fifty-six Lebanese online stores or stores belonging to companies that do business in Lebanon prior to passing law number 81\2018. The main challenge highlighted in the second chapter of this study is the problem of the law that will be applicable on the parties and the contract especially with the absence of attribution rules in Lebanese Law; The third chapter examines the clear identification and capacity of the parties to contract under the applicable law; while the fourth chapter studies the sensitive topic of Internet crimes and consumer protection. The conclusion of this study is to cite the primitive state of the cyber space regulation in Lebanon and then highlight the benefits of investing in such field and the disadvantages of refraining from it in order to suggest the best solutions to this modern-day problem, while balancing regulation and freedom to contract to the best extent.