COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PECULIARITIES OF ELECTRONIC CONTRACS IN UKRAINE AND IN GERMANY: LEGAL ASPECTS

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study theoretical and practical issues of electronic contracting and to provide a comparative analysis of the legal regulation of electronic contracts in Ukraine and Germany.The urgency of the topic is explained by the wide use of various electronic means in practice of electronic contracting and the lack of consistent regulation of these relationships in the Ukrainian legislation. That is why it is important to consider the positive foreign experience of legal regulation of this area, in particular, to analyze the experience of Germany, as it is one of the first countries where electronic contracts and e-commerce in general have become widespread. German civil law is a pattern for the development of Ukrainian civil law, and modern civil law reforms in Ukraine are largely based on the experience of German law.The methods used in the paper are formal-logical, comparative, systemic and analytical methods.In the article various legal aspects of conclusion of contracts using the Internet are analyzed. In particular, the authors discover types of electronic contracts and their legal regulation in Germany and in Ukraine. The comparative analysis German and Ukrainian legislation regulating conclusion of electronic contracts, electronic signatures (digital signatures), activity of trust services providers is made. The types of forms of juridical acts and types of signatures prescribed by the Ukrainian and German legislation are discovered.The results of the research show that one of the main problems associated with electronic contracts in Ukraine is the lack of consistent regulation of electronic contracting. To eliminate these problems and contradictions, the authors suggest amending the current legislation, in particular, the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Law on Electronic Trust Services and the Law on Electronic Commerce, choosing the approach closest to the one supported in German law. In particular, it is necessary to clearly define the criteria by which the electronic form of juridical acts may be equated to the written one, as well as to establish that the only type of signature that is the full equivalent of a handwritten one is a qualified electronic signature.