Croatia’s computer laws: promotion of growth in E-commerce via greater cyber-security

Abstract

Croatia’s Electronic Signature Act (“ESA”) was enacted in 2002. The ESA is third-generation and provides for legal recognition of all types of E-signatures, but gives preferred status to the digital signature. The ESA provides for regulation of Certification Authorities (“CA”), who may voluntarily elect to become accredited if they are able to comply with stringent financial and technical requirements. The principal duties of CA’s are to: issue certificates to successful applicants; confirm the authenticity and integrity of E-signatures to relying third parties; maintain a repository of certificates which may be accessed by the public; and cancel a certificate if any information contained therein is discovered to be inaccurate. The ESA covers legal liability of CA’s and punitive measures which may be taken against them if they violate the ESA. The Electronic Document Act (“EDA”) was enacted in 2005. The EDA specifies how an E-document can be used to comply with a statutory requirement for production of a paper document or an original document. The EDA also creates a legal presumption of admissibility of evidence in electronic form, and contains rules pertinent to assumed time/place of transmission/receipt of an E-message. The EDA covers liability of Internet service providers and specifies several computer crimes. The Electronic Commerce Act (“ECA”) was enacted in 2003. The ECA provides for basic E-contract rules, basic regulation of E-commerce sellers, and basic consumer protections of E-commerce buyers. Although it was a satisfactory first-step, the ECA needs to be fine-tuned with the following modifications: (1) add E-contract attribution rules; (2) improve the E-contract acknowledgement-of-receipt rules; (3) add E-contract rules for carriage contracts; (4) strengthen the consumer protections of E-commerce buyers; (5) establish information technology courts for resolution of E-commerce disputes; (6) add cybersuite provisions; and (7) add explicit long-arm jurisdiction over foreign E-commerce sellers.