전자상거래 플랫폼과 거래관계에 대한 책임

As a rule, the operator of a e-commerce platform is not a party to a transaction contract concluded between a trader and consumer. Because he is in general in a position of a intermediary. Then he will not assumed to be liable for the contract arising from the transaction between a trader and a consumer. Therefore, it is natural that an operator of an e-commerce platform who has acted as an intermediary should be exempted from these contractual responsibilities if it is clearly stated that he is not a party to the contract. However, in the current reality of the platform economy, although it is said that the platform operator is not a party to the contract, but only a marketplace or a intermediary, there are growing views that a platform operator should be held accountable for doing many things that the contracting party could do. The current E-commerce Consumer Protection Act does not directly regulate the above-mentioned problems in this regard, although it imposes in some degree the statutable obligations considering the level of involvement. The recent discussions of European Union has been moving dynamically to legislate on these rules. In this paper, by referring to discussions in the European Union, an attempt was made to expand the responsibility in respect of cases in which the consumer could mistake the operator of a e-commerce platform for a contracting party on the basis of appearance of having a dominant influence. However, the discussions have not yet been concluded and should be considered still in progress. Therefore, the Author conclude this paper with the hope that further studies will be conducted and more detailed responsibility theories will emerge.