Issues in internet sales law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Issues in internet sales law - Essay Example When a bid is made, the bidder is said to have made an offer. When the auctioneer strikes a hammer thrice or says words like ‘Going, Going, Gone’, the offer is accepted and a contract of sale is made. These days, a wide variety of goods are presented for auction online. The seller does not need to meet face-to-face with the buyer or the bidder. The person who makes the highest bid wins the auction and the goods are sold to him. In the given case, Chris won an auction online and bought an artifact for ?50. He believed it to worth ?500 if it was free of chips. Otherwise, it was worth ?50 only. He saw an image of the artifact online and found no flaw in it. The seller had a feedback rating of 50 transactions. The seller had written in caption, â€Å"Old pot ornament, in good condition for its age. I know nothing about these items, but it looks old to me.† Also, in seller’s information, he had written, â€Å"all goods are sold as seen.† When the item was delivered, Chris found out that it was not free of chips. S.14(1) of Sale of Goods, 1979 provides that there are no implied terms as to the condition or warranty about the quality or fitness of goods. In this case, the parties had no direct interaction. The buyer had a look at a photograph of the item online and bought it. There are no implied terms as to the warranty or condition. But S.14(2) states that, â€Å"Where the seller sells goods in the course of a business, there is an implied condition that the goods supplied under the contract are of merchantable quality, except that there is no such condition- (a) as regards defects specifically drawn to the buyer's attention before the contract is made ; or (b) if the buyer examines the goods before the contract is made, as regards defects which that examination ought to reveal.† According to the given facts, the seller had a feedback of 50 transactions. The given facts also quote the seller, â€Å"Old pot ornament, in good condition for its age. I know nothing about these items, but it looks old to me.† The online trading system often produces a dilemma whether the seller acted in the course of business or not. The former of the two facts reveals that the seller had been trading online for quite some time. This means that the seller had acted in the course of business. However, during his run in online trading, he did not sell the same type of goods every time. The later of the two facts shows that the seller did not act in the course of business because he had vividly expressed that he had no knowledge of the ornament. This puts him somewhere in the middle of the two types of actions. Taylor and Willet (2005) call such a seller a Hybrid Seller. The law is silent about this type of seller. There was no concept of such a seller until the emergence of online trading system. The most important factor in determining the rights and remedies of the buyer is the ascertainment of the fact whether it was a sale by description and whether the consumer relied on such description. Chris saw the picture and decided to purchase the ornament thinking that it would be a good investment if the ornament was free of chips. The picture in question shows that the item was a clean piece. Chris depended on the depiction by the picture and decided to purchase the item. Consumer’s reliance is pivotal in the cases of sale by description. S.13(1) of Sale of Goods Act 1979, states that, â€Å"