communities and other groups too appreciated its potential.20 Now built on modern commercial technologies, the internet had grown into a conglomerate of million networks worldwide,21 and a mass phenomenon in the aftermath of mid 1990s.22 1.3 BACKGROUND The Information society has generated the notion of electronic commerce (ecommerce) whereby business is transacted via the internet,23 using email messages or click-wrap contracts.24 Many writers explored the definition of e-commerce.25 Ecommerce embraces amalgam of technologies which bring together information exchange and economic activity into a global marketplace called the internet.26 ECommerce is also referred to as trade via electronic networks in particular, the internet,27 a paperless exchange of business information using a suite of technologies such as electronic data interchange, electronic mail, electronic fund transfer, credit cards, facsimile, electronic bulletin board systems and database services. 28 In its widest context, e-commerce is said to include any kind of transaction made using digital technology in open networks like internet and closed networks such as electronic data exchange and credit card transactions.29 E-commerce accelerates economic growth through myriad of technologies.30 Business transactions are worldwide being conducted in an online environment, and the transmission and store of information is in the electronic form instead of traditional paper documents.31 20 Brown (2013: 6). Brown (2013: 9); Lloyd, J. (2011) “Information Technology Law” 6 th ed, 443 22 Brown (2013: 3). 23 Fitzgerald et al (2007: 13). 24 Fitzgerald et al (2007: 486). 25 Jaco, L. (1998) “Electronic commerce: the law and its consequences” May De Rebus 64 at 65; Esselaar, P. et al. (2002) “Towards electronic commerce in Africa: a perspective from three country studies” 1 SAJIC 1 at 12; Schulze, C. (2006) “Electronic commerce and civil Jurisdiction with special reference to consumer contracts” 18 SA Merc LJ 31; Coetzee, J. (2003) “Incoterms, electronic data interchange and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act” 15 SA Merc Law Journal 1. 26 Kariyawasam et al (2009: 434 at 435). 27 Kariyawasam et al (2009: 157 at 160); Rowland, D. (2012). “Information Technology Law” 4 th ed, 233. 28 Ahmad (2009: 2); Davidson, A. (2009) “The Law of electronic commerce” 1. 29 Kariyawasam et al (2009: 96); Hofman, J et al. (1999). “Cyberlaw: a guide for South Africans doing business online” 30. 30 Kariyawasam et al (2009: 434). 31 Singh, Y. (2011) “Cyber laws” 4 th ed, 147. 21 3