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23 may 2006
E-COMMERCE REGULATION
AND ITS INFLUENCE ON COMPETITION DEVELOPMENT
IN UZBEKISTAN
YAKOVENKO ALEXEY
The given research is divided into three parts. The first one includes the explanation of ICT development in Uzbekistan, and shows their influence to market economy and competition development.
The second part reveals the modern legislature base of e-commerce in Uzbekistan and foreign countries. The deep analysis is also made with comparative examination of central legal acts in this field. The author establishes legislature gaps of e-commerce regulation and its legal frames for successful and effective functioning.
The last part of research is represented by real proposals on perfection domestic legislature on further ICT regulation and also e-commerce as their business gist. The author gives the examples of legal acts, which are highly required for ICT market members, and points to law ways of harmonization of e-competition. He also offers evidences of necessary laws in researched sphere. At last the attention on self-regulation of e-commerce and healthy competition is sharpen in order to stimulate national business subjects to order their attitudes at e-markets.
ICT, e-commerce, legal regulation, law, competition
The humanity in the XXI century entered in a new phase of development of the civilization. We live in an epoch of rapid progress of information technologies (IT) and «the Internet-expansion».
Relating to global network users, according to the data of various research companies, the world audience of the Internet by the end 2002 has grown up to 605,6 million[i]. Thus it is expected, that dynamics of the growth of amount of users will be 19,1% a year[ii], i.e. approximately 860 million by the end of 2004, or 12 – 13 % of the planet population. Concerning Uzbekistan the given parameters are about 510 thousand of Internet-users, or 2% of the country population respectively[iii]. It testifies to significant information gap of Uzbekistan with the countries with the advanced system of information relations.
It is not a surprise, that the end of the XX century was a period of origin of the concept about formation of new society – information one[iv] which functioning demands adequate technological maintenance, and also an appropriate level of legal regulation. The Internet allowing in real time to use economic success, and promoting democratic processes, has caused especially many disputes in scientific circles.
Potential advantages of electronic business over usual one are obvious. These are practically unlimited range of possible clients, reduction of outlay on personnel and accommodations and elimination of unnecessary intermediators. Nevertheless disadvantage of lack of direct contact between seller and customer, is also evident. However, development of virtual commerce is held by amount of economical, social, psychological and as well purely technical reasons, such development special soft and hardware, necessary for running e-business, and also improvement of communicational infrastructure. The problem of carrying out of e-commerce has, besides technical difficulties, a quantity of delicate juridical and economic aspects. At last, containment of commerce in the Internet is provided by incomplete its definition in juridical status, caused by unavoidable lag of not only legislature, but even legal theory[v].
Many authors, using the term of e-commerce, do not exactly express the gist of the category in the whole, for example, the following definition: «it is trading of intangible goods, such as the information in text, video or audio form, which can be transacted or defined in digital form»[vi]. Argumentativeness of this statement lies in e-commerce should not be only in electronic form. The objects of it can be almost all ones of commodity circulation.
However, agreements, demanding notarial verification or governmental registering, or agreements in family or inheritance law can not be realized via the Internet[vii].
Including this point significantly constricts the amount of possible bargains, but it can be proved, because of insufficiency prevalence of ICT in the society, and also incomplete adaptation of electronic documents circulation in our governmental bodies’ activity.
Nevertheless, electronic commerce involves various affairs via the Internet. It can be not only sales, but also providing diverse services, such as medical[viii], legal, professional consulting, bank[ix] and financial services[x].
Legal interpretation of electronic commerce in Uzbekistan is those: «Enterprise activity on sale of the goods, performance of works and services, carried out with of information systems». In our opinion, this definition establishes borders of application of electronic commerce unclearly and does not include the usage of EDI directed on the conclusion of electronic transactions.
E-commerce allows to carry out business relations of managing subjects by means of electronic networks, including the Internet, in any field of activity: advertising, personnel agencies, financial instruments, sales of the goods or services, market researches, technical support and others[xi].
Internet usage in business can include such operations as clients searching with the help of exhibiting of the information on trading platforms[xii], advertising[xiii], conclusion of transactions[xiv], financial operations[xv], exchange of the information between participants of commercial activity, etc. Such activity can be carried out with small expenses. Besides the Internet allows to expand the scale of company activity considerably. Especially it is necessary to allocate speed of transactions carrying out.
Usually objects of electronic technologies introduction are the following directions of trading activity of firms and enterprises:
– corporate information system[xvi];
– system of supply[xvii];
– system of sales[xviii];
– on-line trading platforms[xix].
Each of these directions carries out the certain functions, supplementing each other during automation of trading activity of the enterprise.
Last years the majority of the enterprises are carried out radical changes both during manufacture of the goods, in management of it, and also in structure of all activity with the purpose of optimization of an infrastructure and increasing of efficiency of enterprise activity as a whole. Thus the huge role is played by the corporate information systems aimed at automation of interaction between all structural divisions.
Moreover, in opinion of analysts of Gartner Group company, it will be an era of joint commerce (collaborative commerce) which comes to take place of electronic commerce[xx], where the enterprises can either buy production of each other, or work on creation of new goods and services. For example, a buyer company has interests of the end user, and it acts as a key element of the system in all variety of external communications in this case.
The same point of view have other authors who mark adheres also, that «efficiency of business in the Internet raises at association of companies efforts. By the reason of specificity of the Network, all announcements and advertising can easily get lost in the common information array. It is Important to place the information in the Internet in that place where the probability of material perusal of the potential client will be great enough»[xxi].
Thus, creation of the certain centers in which commercial activity (trading platforms, auctions, etc.)[xxii] concentrates is peculiar for the Internet. Internet-platforms are created rather frequently by joint efforts of leaders in the area of the enterprises that allows to make such platform an effective mean of the contracts conclusion[xxiii].
Uzbekistan legislation stipulates to use uniform electronic system of the exchange tenders on trading platforms[xxiv], however legitimate limits of system functioning have not been established, that is a certain obstacle for wide introduction of the given technology in domestic practice.
Besides it, taking into account complexity and dynamism of development of researched legal relations, it is necessary to establish the priority of self-regulation of electronic commerce. Customs of a trade turnover, and also acts of its participants developed by not-state associations reflect character and features of mutual relations between the contractors more adequately. Therefore it is necessary to take into account the importance of this internal regulation, and also to provide its use during making electronic agreements or resolutions of the disputes in the court.
So to sum up all abovementioned it necessary to say that there are some advantages of e-business which are gained by contractors during their bargaining in electronic form:
At first, mobility: bargaining and agreement transfer are committed by the informational nets, and that noticeable economizes the time and expenses of contractors.
Secondly, stability: the addresser-counteragent is not able to allege invalidity of signature, because agreement has been made with the knowledge of addresser or with this contractor’s outrage, because electronic digital can not almost be feigned. All these factors directly influence to competition development in Uzbekistan and business activity broadening, especially at international markets.
Assuming above-stated, there are some necessary factors of development e-commerce in Uzbekistan:
– Law: enacting special legislature on e-commerce legalizing bargains in electronic form, and authorization of requirements for them and their contractors. Making amendments liquidating the number of collisions and ambiguities of actual law in the field of electronic bargains and their validity. Elaborating law on arbitration defense rights of e-commerce participants;
– Technique-and-development: allowance for Internet providing, improving telephone set, developing hard and software for e-commerce;
– Science researching: study of science fundamentals and problems of electronic commerce, basis research of this field, writing articles and educational books, the media reinforcing this relationship, developing special web-resources, holding open regular forums and seminars, skill formation, and international collaboration.
All these arrangements should assist in formation of adequate social adaptation of e-commerce and further development of competition in business activity on basis of law in the Republic of Uzbekistan.
1
[i]
[ii]
[iii]
[iv] See: Negroponte N. (1995) Being Digital, New Times. October. р. 33; Gates B. (1995) The Road Ahead (Harmondsworth: Penguin); Dertouzous Michel L. (1997) What will be: How the New World of Information will Change our Lives (Piaktus).
[v] Roche&Duffay. Электронная коммерция и ее налогообложение.
[vi] Отставнов М. (1997) Банки, Интернет, Право, Банковские технологии, 9, p. 23.
[vii] EU Directive No 2000/31/EU «On electronic commerce» provides the right of making exception for several kinds of agreements to its participants. European legislature experience has significant role for Uzbekistan, because our country is a member of the same legal system.
[viii] Наумов В. (1999) Телемедицина как медицинская и информационная услуги: юридический анализ; Наумов В., СавельевД. Правовые аспекты телемедицины.
[ix] Хикматуллаев Н. (2003) Интернет-банкинг, InfoCom, 10.
[x]Кадощук И; Савельев С. Интернет-трейдинг и его безопасность. printrcb.asp?aid=1495
[xi]Large foreign research companies in the field of electronic commerce, in particular Yankee Group, assume, that the of В2В-transactions should be about 541 by 2003 against 138 billion USDin 1999. In spite of the fact that in Europe these volumes are a little bit lower, Visa International company assumed the growth of ammount of В2В-transactions about 7,2 billion USD in 1998 up to 176 billion by the end of 2003. Ibid.
[xii] Виноградов И., Кейси Э., Савельев Ю. (1999) Сетевое окружение, КомерсантЪ – Деньги, 3. p. 15.
[xiii] Синицые Д. (2002) Интернет-реклама меняет формат, КомерсантЪ, 18.11.
[xiv] Терещенко Л.К. (2001) Правовое регулирование электронной коммерции, Юридический мир, 10. p. 36.
[xv] Электронная торговля ценными бумагами и перспективы банковской системы (2003), Рынок ценных бумаг, 4. p. 56.
[xvi]Corporate information system is the important integrating part providing support of automated systems of supply and sales. It supports efficient control of all business processes inside the enterprise.
[xvii] The system of supply provides raw material and accessories to industrial enterprise. Its basic elements are actually the system of purchases and control system of mutual relations with suppliers.
[xviii]The system of sales allows to automate the process of sales of finished goods and mutual relations with clients. It includes, first of all, trading system and control system of mutual relations with clients.
[xix]On-line trading platforms is universal instrument giving an opportunity to receive a full complex of services on support of purchasing activity to their users .
[xx]
[xxi] Калятин В.О. (2004) Право в сфере Интернета (М.:Норма). p. 316.
[xxii] For example, in the beginning 2000 Transplace.сom united more than 1500 carriers with park of 220 thousand automobiles and 800 thousand trailers. See: Каляда S. (2001) Virtualnaja logistic, КоммерсантЪ. 29.03.
[xxiii] In particular, such enterprise as Transora, which is created by companies Coca Cola, Nestle, Procter and Gamble, Danone, Pepsi, Kraft, etc. Калятин V.O. Op. cit. p. 316.
[xxiv] Art. 6 of Decree of the Cabinet of the Ministers «On perfection of organization system of wholesale and exchange trade» №198 from 01.05.2001.