What Might MacNeil Have Said About Using Ebay?

Campbell, Mulcahy and Wheeler (eds), ‘Changing Conceptions of Contract: Essays in Honour of Ian MacNeil’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2013), Forthcoming

Queen's University Belfast Law Research Paper No. 2013-07

38 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2013 Last revised: 27 Apr 2013

See all articles by Sally Wheeler

Sally Wheeler

Australian National University (ANU)

Date Written: April 16, 2013

Abstract

In this chapter I want to look at computer-mediated consumer purchase contracts. These are contracts made in the world of e-commerce using websites such as Amazon which exist only as electronic presences and the online presences of conventional “bricks and mortar” retail establishments. In 2011 the value of retail online sales in the UK was £50.34 billion representing 12.0% of UK retail trade. In 2008 the equivalent figure was 8.6% of retail sales. In the US the market share of online sales is 9.0% (CCR 2011). In Australia and New Zealand the figure is rather lower at just under 7% but is predicated, like the UK, the US and Europe to carry on growing (Frost and Sullivan 2012). The growth of online shopping, previously fuelled by the increase in domestic broadband accessibility, now unsurprisingly mirrors the popularity in ownership of mobile devices that can access the internet; in the UK just over a quarter of adults own a smartphone, in the US that figure rises to over a third (Ofcom 2011; Pew Research Centre 2011). Continuing online retail sales growth in a period of general contraction for retail sales because of world wide economic conditions emphasizes the entrenchment of online shopping as a cultural practice. The particular example for this paper comes from a study of contracts made using eBay, which is a marketplace site that acts as an intermediary rather than as a retailer in its own right. As the paper points out contracts made using this marketplace differ from contracts made using online presences of conventional retail establishments or internet sites such as Amazon in that trust has to be established not in a brand name for goods or in a retail establishment but in an unknown individual.

Keywords: Contract, MacNeil, e-commerce

Suggested Citation

Wheeler, Sally, What Might MacNeil Have Said About Using Ebay? (April 16, 2013). Campbell, Mulcahy and Wheeler (eds), ‘Changing Conceptions of Contract: Essays in Honour of Ian MacNeil’ (Palgrave Macmillan 2013), Forthcoming, Queen's University Belfast Law Research Paper No. 2013-07, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2251876

Sally Wheeler (Contact Author)

Australian National University (ANU) ( email )

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601
Australia

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