A Comparative Legal Research on the Contract Formation in the International Sale of Goods through Electronic Communication Means: Focused on the Regulations of the EU and Korea

This article attempts to describe and analyse the relevant provisions on the formation of contract for sale of goods via electronic communications under EU regulations and Korean Laws in a comparative way. International sales transactions are, in general, doing conduct with specific written documents even though most regulations in the world provide a written form is not necessary to make a contract for commercial transactions. Form requirement is needed in some international trade documents. Writing and signature raises a level of certainty and provides a record of the terms of agreement. It also fosters better communications given difference in law, language and culture amongst participants of international trade. When electronic communication means are used for making a contract of sale between contractual parties in the EU and Korea, there are some questions whether a contract formation is legally the same provisions, inter alia, form requirements and time of contract formation. Although most regulations in the two economic areas relating to e-commerce are not quite different, some provisions may not be exactly same in terms of form requirement such as authentication of electronic signatures and time of contract formation. In that respect, this article analyses how to solve the differences of the provisions in the regulations of two economic areas.