Electronic commercial transactions have become increasingly important
since the late 1990s. With the functional development of automated comput-
ing systems in recent years, decision-making regarding the sale of goods or
services can be done automatically between two international trading companies
with standard terms without any human interaction. These automated
systems can design and offer a most favourable sale package to the buyer
based on the information that the buyer gives, history of choice preferences
and other data sources that the seller collects such as market prices, currency
exchange rates and new modules, etc. Once the supply matches the demand
(it usually takes a few seconds), an international contract of sale will be automatically
concluded by the automated trading systems. Although business
could benefi t from such a system in terms of convenience and effi ciency,
there is potential legal uncertainty with regard to the validity of automated
electronic contracts.