Electronic Commerce Act becomes effective in El Salvador
On February 10th, 2020, the “Electronic Commerce Act” was published in Official Journal No. 27, volume 426, which becomes effective today February 10th, 2021, one year after its publication. This law intends to be a legislative update, which seeks to regulate everything that was left out of the reforms to the Consumer Protection Act of 2019, as expressed by the law in its article 5 literal b).
The subjects that are required to comply with this regulation, in accordance with Art. No. 3, are all persons (natural or legal), including public institutions, that commercialize services through technological means, or through interconnected communication networks, better known as the internet.
In this law, we find important to highlight two aspects that we consider will help improve trade between business to business and business to consumers (B2B and B2C), improve certain operations and users to learn more about their rights:
- The possibility of issuing Electronic Invoices.
A true legislative update, which seeks the facility for both businesses and consumers to have quick access and details about their purchase.
- Effectiveness of electronic contracts.
Speed up commerce by digital procurement, where the law establishes consent, by means of a reliable and clear form, as an essential basis of the contract for it to take effect in legal life.
In addition to this, the provider of goods or services that wishes to apply its online sales modality, has to comply with certain requirements established by the regulations in Art. No.15:
- Steps to follow for hiring.
- Terms and conditions.
- Price of the goods and additional expenses for each of the goods.
- Delivery time.
- Means to modify or cancel the delivery and the validation or correction of the data.
- Forms of dispute resolution.
- Language of the contract.
- Payment method.
Finally, it is important to highlight the obligation that suppliers of goods and services have through automated means to provide security and confidentiality of personal and credit data of the people with whom they do business; for which, they must have a secure site certificate that provides SSL (Secure Sockets Layers) encryption for the transmission of data made through the website.
Rodrigo Benítez Nassar
Associate
García & Bodán
El Salvador