• introduction
• Australia
• UNCITRAL
• EU and North America

     introduction

A 1996 paper by Bradley Crawford asked Is Electronic Money Really Money?. The answer, apparently, is that depends ...

Manfred Kohlbach's 2004 paper Making Sense of Electronic Money comments that

When electronic money (or 'e-money', for short) was first presented as an integral part of the ‘digital revolution’ in the 1990s (Levy 1994; Steinert-Threlkeld 1996) most products were based on the metaphor of the 'electronic wallet'. 'Digital coins', stored offline on smart cards or on user’s hard disks, were the ruling paradigm.

'Micropayments', small value purchases for online content (newspaper articles, say; or music clips), were seen as electronic money’s defining application. Despite the technological hype, consumers were apathetic, merchants were unimpressed, and most schemes disappeared as quickly as they had surfaced. Still, a number of risks were identified, and possible legal regulation based on 'digital coin' metaphors and smart card technology was debated.

Today, payment systems (such as PayPal) and services offered via mobile phones are electronic money’s new paradigm. The technology is online and predominantly account-based. Payments are 'macro' rather than 'micro'. And consumers and merchants seem much more impressed with available services and solutions. Electronic money has come of age

The EU Directive 2000/46/EC ('E-Money Directive') thus identifies electronic money as

monetary value as represented by a claim on the issuer which is:
(i) stored on an electronic device;
(ii) issued on receipt of funds of an amount not less in value than the monetary value issued;
(iii) accepted as a means of payment by undertakings other than the issuer

     Australia

The Australian Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (ETA) is perhaps the major achievement of the national government's 'strategic framework for the information economy' under the coordination of the former National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE). It gives electronic transactions involving Commonwealth government agencies the same status as those using paper.  

Because most contract law is a state responsibility, the Act is to be 'mirrored' by complementary state legislation.  As yet, similar acts have come into effect in Victoria and NSW; further progress is likely to be slow. There is a useful one-volume discussion in The Law of Payment Systems (Sydney: Butterworths 2000) by Alan Tyree & Andrea Beatty.

ETA reflects changes to the Evidence Act during the past decade - the law now looks more kindly on newfangled technology such as the photocopier - and the Electronic Commerce Expert Group's 1998 Electronic Commerce: Building the Legal Framework report, that embraced electronic signatures, record-keeping, contracts, the UNCITRAL model code for ecommerce (see below), and other matters.  

The Attorney-General's Department has an e-Commerce Homepage, primarily concerned with the ETA.

A paper of particular interest is that by Alan Tyree on Computer Money - Legal Considerations.

The slow pace of electronic commerce reform at the national and state/territory levels has been speeded up by overseas developments.  In the US the Electronic Signatures In Global & National Commerce Act came into effect in October 2000. 

     UNCITRAL

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has proposed a model code for ecommerce, to be reflected in national legislation and practice across the globe.  Information about the code is available on the UNCITRAL website

For a perspective on the UNCITRAL negotiating process, the players and likely outcomes we recommend the excellent Global Business Regulation (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2000) by John Braithwaite & Peter Drahos.

     EU and North America

During 2000 the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive to "establish a coherent legal framework for electronic commerce across the EU". The Directive, in effect from 2002, seeks to encourage competition and innovation in the field of electronic payments (particularly on an EU-wide basis) while maintaining prudential supervision requirements.

An overview of developments is provided by Malte Krueger's 2002 Innovation and Regulation - The Case of E-Money Regulation in the EU (PDF). The UK government released a Discussion Paper (PDF) on the Directive in 2001.

Elsewhere in the guides we've pointed to the American Bar Association's excellent site exploring global jurisdiction issues.

     Government

Within Australia the federal Attorney-General's Department has an e-Commerce Homepage, primarily concerned with the ETA. Its Electronic Commerce Expert Group 1998 report Electronic Commerce: Building the Legal Framework is still of value.

     Overseas

Elsewhere in the guides we've pointed to the American Bar Association's excellent site exploring global jurisdiction issues and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)  

     Industry

The Australian Bankers Association (ABA) site is not particularly revealing. Other finance industry bodies include the American Bankers Association (ABA), British Bankers Association (BBA) and Canadian Bankers Association (CBA). The World Bank and The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) are also online

     academic resources 

Among Australian and overseas academic institutions concerned with electronic commerce the following may be of interest to readers of this guide.

The Wharton Forum on Electronic Commerce (WFEC) at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania (giving Harvard Business School a run for its money in producing MBAs) has useful pointers to recent market studies and other research, although note that much of the material is restricted to Wharton affiliates.

The eLab at Vanderbilt University is headed by Donna Hoffman & Tom Novak. The site includes excellent papers and numerous links. MIT's eCommerce centre offers links to a number of good studies by Ariely, Brynjolfsson and others. The Hermes project at the University of Michigan is primarily of interest for its web user surveys.

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