Ecommerce Subcommittee

Elaine Ziff from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, NYC, and Chair of the Subcommittee, gives us the following report:

The Ecommerce Subcommittee met on Friday afternoon and considered two projects. The first, proposed by Cris Kunz and Philip Schmandt, is to prepare a "Model Electronic Data Agreement" with commentary. Picking up where the Model Trading Partner Agreement leaves off, the Model Electronic Data Agreement could potentially form the basis for standardizing the agreements between trading partners and their third party data processors. Currently, the number of vendors providing value-added data transmission and management services, and the disparity of contract forms, results in the expenditure of time and effort by trading partners attempting to harmonize the arrangements between their respective middlemen. If standardization could be achieved, it would streamline this process. An outline of key terms in existing data agreements was presented by Hank Judy, to stimulate discussion.

The second project discussed was safeselling.org. This would be an ABA sponsored free- access website devoted to providing information on the common questions of entrepreneurs launching an on-line venture. The site would cover such topics as domain names, payment methods, taxation, terms and conditions, privacy, and security, in an FAQ format directed primarily at non-lawyers. The paradigm for this project is safeshopping.org, a currently-operating ABA-sponsored website which provides tips to consumers regarding on-line shopping.

The Safeselling project is headed by Jon Rubens and co-sponsored by the ABA Small Business Committee. It is gaining momentum, with five sections of content already drafted. It is anticipated that, between now and the Annual Meeting in August, more content sections will be generated and circulated to the appropriate Subcommittees and Working Groups for their input.