 Legal issues in e-transactions, e-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services through the internet. It has also been defined as the sharing of business information, the maintaining of business relationships and the conducting of transactions by means of telecommunication networks. This has led to the emergence of electronic commerce through which commercial transactions are conducted between parties from different parts of the world and who may never see themselves in their lifespans. However, the emergence of electronic commerce has also brought with it a number of legal and socio-economic problems, especially in the developing nations such as Nigeria, problems which pose significant challenges to the legal regime of electronic commerce in those countries. It is not restricted solely to the actual buying and selling of products but includes pre-sale and post-sale activities. In more liberal terms, once a contract of sale is effected between a buyer and a seller, using such electronic means as the electronic mail, regardless of distance or any geographical barrier, it is within the province of electronic commerce. The objectives of e-commerce include the facilitation of international cooperation through trade, making goods and services available to consumers all over the world irrespective of distance, the expansion of the consumer base for manufacturers or producers of goods and services, and a reduction in the cost of service delivery by delivering this electronically. It encourages a single-world trading system which is facilitated by access through electronic means to goods and services from different parts of the world. Customers in e-commerce are faced with a number of risks arising from the general lack of understanding of the operations of the internet. This has been compounded by a number of legal issues which have been largely taken care of in more advanced and sophisticated countries, but which issues are still being grappled with in developing countries such as Nigeria, where internet trading is something fairly new. There is no legislation on the protection of data presently in Nigeria and the situation pertains a great danger for consumers in e-commerce. It is suggested that a queue be taken from the United Kingdom, where there are principles that govern the protection of the data or communication of the parties in all internet transactions. The determination of the moment when a contract can be set to have come into existence on the internet, giving rise to the existence of rights and duties as between the parties has been one of the best issues in e-commerce. The special nature of internet contracts has made most of the common law rules applicable to commercial contracts in applicable to such contracts. For example, websites are designed in such a way as to constitute an invitation to make an offer and not situations of real offers by the web owners. However, in sales over the internet, both the display and the actual sale are often bonded. Making payment for goods and services bought through the internet poses unique problems because of the fact that the parties may be thousands of kilometers apart. The problems associated with internet payments are in relation to the inability of the internet to guarantee the safety of such payments and the possibility of duplicating payments since a computer could potentially become a forger of digital banknotes. Thank you. A computer can be a forger of digital banknotes. Yes, of digital banknotes. It's not very reliable. I'm a complete Luddite so that does blow my mind. I've heard a lot of stories of people with their experiences with what they call online vendors. Yes, online vendors. There's a lot to be said. Again, I think that it's also a problem of education. People are not aware of what... A lot of things you just talked about, I've never heard about them before in terms of the legal parts of it. If you just feel you have something to sell or you have the money for it, pay for it, whether they run the service or not, it's not really their business. And customer service is a big, big problem in Nigeria anyways. So even when you go physically with your cash in your briefcase, they really don't care. Not so much that it's over the phone. So they hide under that cover of the internet so they're able to do a lot of things because they know what my house come and beat me. What's the worst you can do? What you can do is go and run it on social media. Well, the next customer, I think there has to be laws that are put in place. And there's a Consumer Protection Council. I think they need to look into the internet transactions and e-commerce and then put those laws in place that actually guarantees... because I've had a few bad experiences. I'd rather just walk there, as walk as I am. So I just let me just go to the store, fill this with my hands. Pay my money and go my way. But there are a few things that you have to buy. And there are a few stores that are obviously more responsible than online. So you just basically pick your battles or pick your death. And the challenge of what I ordered against what I bought or what I sold. Like you see... By the time the shoe is delivered to you, you're seeing a different color of the shoe. So in that case, what is the legal process in that case? How do you sue? I mean, it's an e-commerce entity. How do you sue that kind of entity, right? Are they going to answer? Yes, you can return and you can ask for a refund. And even if you don't get one? Yes, you can ask for a refund. You can even enforce illegal action. But the problem you mentioned about the judiciary, when you sue over a matter, just the issue of 15K, you're taking the matter to court. By the time you calculate the filing fees, going back and forth, what's the point? But it also says in terms of the structure of these e-commerce platforms, right? So some are set up very well. They have processes. There's agreements. They have checks and balances. But you bring up Instagram. And that's probably the number one marketplace digitally in Nigeria. God bless the soul. Yeah. So while there are these actual platforms, major platforms that exist in Nigeria, that have these kind of things in place, you can return goods. They hold their vendors accountable. However, I would say probably the average person is using, Instagram is using Twitter, who is buying and selling. And so they're just going to do, you have to, you're really just at the behest of that person. And if they are willing to refund you or change and give the customer service, and there are lots of good vendors who are. But unfortunately, there'll be just as many who aren't. I've bought a platform where I've bought things twice and I've returned it twice. I have a friend who's bought, I don't want to mention names. He bought some things and when he bought it, we returned it. And they actually returned his money for him to him. He refunded it. But the truth is that, I mean, outside all those ones, those are the established ones you're talking, you're referring to, but outside the established ones, the major thing we should look at is, what should a buyer, a potential client or customer look out for when you go online to shop? What are the limitations? Because for example, I know that when you're shopping online in, I was going to say Ghana, in Nigeria, and when you use your card, it sends an OTP to your phone. And when you're shopping online at a foreign and international website, it doesn't send you OTP. It deducts immediately. So these are some of the things we need to look at to regulate. But I don't know what Barbara Shola thinks. Well, I think again, when I heard the word legal, I just think about the court and what we just said. But, and I also think about the cost of getting a lawyer to regulate and to intervene in a small matter. No, I think what, the only I can advise is anybody who is shopping online should actually refer, I mean, all websites should have a returns policy, which you can refer to in case you do buy something that you think you want to return on the issues. And the returns policy should inform what the process is and what your agreement is with the company. So I think before you buy anything from the website with the returns policy, that said, an agreement is only as good as the person who wrote it. So even though people, we know some people who have copied and pasted people, other people's policies into their websites. So, you know, it may just be may formality, but at least if you're dealing with a particular company, what you do, check their returns policies. Thank you very much, Mr. Barbara Shola. Tolu is next after the break. Stay with us.