플랫폼을 이용한 전자거래의 법률문제 - 플랫폼사업자의 책임을 중심으로 -

Recently, the roles and responsibilities of intermediaries or mediators in mail-order sales or e-commerce transactions have attracted attention. This is because the platform is increasingly involved in the overall transaction, rather than acting as a sales intermediary between sellers and buyers. However, the platform provider is not responsible for any damages arising out of or in connection with the transactions between the seller and the buyer because of the platform only. Because the platform is easy to enter the new structure through the transaction structure, sellers with weak capital or credit can participate in the transaction. Also, due to the non-face-to-face of the transaction, the seller is likely to neglect to comply with the transaction rules or laws required in the transaction. On the other hand, a consumer who is a purchaser is difficult to specify the other party of a transaction, and even if the other party is specified, it is difficult to ask the other party to take responsibility for the transactional damages. Therefore, it is argued that platform provider should assume certain duties and responsibilities according to the degree of involvement of transactions. Platform transactions, unlike general transactions, have the characteristic that many parties participate in transactions, and these parties are not direct parties of platform transactions, so it is not easy to apply civil liability to contract parties. Here, ‘platform’ is one of the characteristics of the shared economy, and legal liability to the platform provider needs to be discussed from the viewpoint of ‘manager of public goods’. Therefore, in this study, we examined the platform structure and the legal status of platform providers, and then examined the civil liability of platform providers.