CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of the Study

Over the years in the mid 90’s was the pest by politicians, economist, law makers and policy and commercial entities as ground breakers for worldwide economic development. The reason for opening of the internet for public use, information could now be circulated globally via computer networks provided that people had the necessary skills and access to globally through computer networks provided that people had the necessary skills and access to computer hardware and software to tap into process of information available on this network. The creation of the opened network impacted a new sense of living within a global community or global village where people could constantly be in touch regardless of the spatial and temporal differences. The internet provided a ready plate form for commerce so that sellers could better advertise their goods and services globally and buyers, consumers and businesses alike, had access to products at competitive prices. That is, with the creation of the internet there was an awareness of people to communicate their commercial transaction through the internet by buying and selling online. Hence, sellers could provide products with information, information, prices delivery terms and interested persons could negotiate terms and conclude contract electronically or online.^[1]

Direct access to a potentially large customers based meant that sellers do not have to opt for traditional methods of selling their products, for example the use of agents to market their products in distant lands. Equally, buyers do not have to go through agents to find suitable manufacturers of products they require. The Information Communication Technology (ICT) revolution was creating a new means of concluding business namely, concluding commerce electronically. E-commerce of new technology raises interesting issues for policy makers, law makers, law enforcement agents and stake holders especially where the technology is expected to have a wide economic impact and readily embraced. The like effect that is social moral economic amongst others of the new technology has to be accessed and decisions need to be taken so that producers and consumers use be regulated. It is a matter of striking a fine balance between the expected risk of the new technology and the opportunities created by it.  The history of mankind is surrounded with instruments of new technology that had enormous impact on society and policy makers, law makers, have stepped in to regulate the behavior of those using the technology. The aviation industry is a good illustration where regulations were put in place early enough to promote the industry and to provide a minimum level of protection for the air passengers.^[2]

The internet racial character is a challenge for policy makers and legislators. Lack of geographical contentment is the most essential character of this new technology. This technology knows no boundaries. Information posted in New York can be accessed within seconds in Cameroon due to globalization. As with globalization, the logic of the internet is economic.^[3]

From here, one can see that before E-Commerce Came up, the re- existed the traditional methods of doing business, which was by using markets that were created for people to go and buy their goods, better bargain and take their goods to their various destinations. This gave room for the under privileged to also have a means of living, as it gave rise to the Batter system which was the buying the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services. As the years passed by, the world became advanced due to the increase in ICT  which motivated and thus led to the increase of the use of the internet and this has facilitated online buying and selling of goods and services in Cameroon today.^[4]

One of the most innovating events towards the end of the last century was the wide acceptance and use of Electronic Commence.^[5] The development of information and communication technology has increasingly led to the development of international commerce because of its “ability to shrink space and time, to bring people together without crossing long distance, to create new market places and to contribute to global economic growth.^[6]  The major significant of electronic commerce therefore lies in the fact  that it is a single world trading system which is facilitated by access through electronic means to goods and services from different parts of the world. Electronic Commerce has been described by some scholars as “so starting in its economic implications that it may reasonably be considered a watershed in the way we do business…an abrupt and irrevocable turning point, one that signals a shift in historical direction by changing the established manner of business practice and replacing them with new paradigm”^[7]. The positive effects of E-commerce have been highly welcomed by most countries the word over and Cameroon not left out.^[8] The internet offers unlimited opportunities to transform the way business is carried out share information and sell products across borders.^[9] Despite the numerous advantages brought along by E-commerce such as: easy negotiation of terms and conclusion of contracts electronically in the shortest possible time, a large platform of sellers that gives access to information, prices and delivery terms, E- commerce raises a number of legal issues and some legal uncertainties which may act as a barrier to E-commerce.^[10] Emergence of any new technology raises issues for policy makers and other stake holders especially in the era of computer technology where it has been readily embraced and has a wide economic impact, The question that comes to mind is to what extent can e-commerce be regulated, so as to find a balance between the risks of the new technology and the opportunities created by it?

Security is of prime importance in electronic commerce. For any contract to be valid there is the need for pre-contractual negotiations to take place such as offer, acceptance and contractual terms. In e-commerce are that of authenticity and integrity of the information gotten from the internet when concluding contracts through electronic means. Questions such as:

“Can the electronic medium be trusted? Does it originate from the real person with whom you are dealing with? Can the message be relied upon? How secure is it given that electronic documents can easily be frauded or manipulated? Is the message the same as the one sent from the origin? What is the legal status of an electronic document? And can it be enforceable? Do electronic messages and electronic signatures meet the legal requirements of writing and signature and above all, what is the legal status of an electronically signed message?”^[11]

The evolution of consumer protection involves development in the United States and United Kingdom. This is so because the notion of Consumer protection in its 20th Century guise is a product of American scholarship. That of the United Kingdom is of particular significance to Cameroon because of the colonial heritage .Cameroon’s law no 2011/012 establishes the legal framework for consumer protection in the country. This law applies to all transactions relating to supply, distribution, sales and exchange of technology, goods and services relating to consumer protection. These transactions include health, pharmacy, food, water, housing, educating, financial services, banking, and transport, energy and communication sector. Consumer protection concerns the adjustment of power relations between consumers and producers. Interposed in this power game is the regulatory role of the state represented by administrative agencies and adjudicatory institutions. The consumer problem is one of how not to be exploited by service providers or manufacturers, or to remedy the exploitation.^[12]

The areas of consumer exploitation are: disparity of bargaining power between the supplier of goods or services and the consumer to whom they are being offered, a growing and total disparity of knowledge concerning the characteristics and technical components of the goods and services, lastly a no less striking disparity of resources between the producer and consumer. Whether the disparity reflects itself in a consumer’s difficulty to obtain redress unaided for a legitimate grievance or in the producer’s ability to absorb the cost of a defective product as part of his general overhead as compared to the consumer to whom its malfunctioning may represent the loss of a considerable capital investment. ^[13]

Consequently few areas of the law affect the average individual as directly as consumer protection. Consumers of complex goods and services are exposed on a daily basis to problems of product safety, fair trade practices, product and service quality and dispute resolution. Consumers complain of a wide range of problems as regards goods and services. They include, fake and contaminated products, defective and inherently dangerous products, faulty and poor quality products, foreign particles in food and drinks, extortionary and inflationary prices. Consumer protection problems are therefore important both to individuals and society at large. ^[14]

Consumer protection regulation in a modern society says a great deal about that society, about its social and economic development, about its legal values, about its sense of justice, about its political superiority and maturity, about its system of government, politics, policy making and priority settings.^[15] It is therefore important for the government to protect the consumers by enforcing the laws that could effectively and vigorously check consumer fraud such as malpractices, adulteration, and production of substandard goods so as to bring violators to book to ensure adequate protection to the consumer.^[16]

As such electronic commerce is faced with serious problems of confidentiality, the integrity of electronic signatures for the validity of transactions and enforceability of contracts. Public key cryptography has been invented with the aim of securing transactions in electronic commerce. Digital signatures and certificates have come up with the aim of authenticating information sent by internet. The need to address such legal issues is urgent. The work as such tries to find out the legal issues and challenges that come up with the practice of electronic commerce and how such issues and challenges can be handles to promote security and integrity in E-commerce in the Cameroonian context.^[17]

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In Cameroon there has been a degree of protection in face to face transaction. With the coming of E-commerce transactions, the protection has been minimized or not effective or in other words, the implementations of consumers’ protection have not been guaranteed. Although efforts are made in the protection of consumers in Cameroon, clients are still being exploited or dubbed by e-commerce through e-commerce platforms.  Given the fact that buying and selling online is hardly done face to face, dishonest users of the internet carries out transactions that do not even exist thereby using this as an opportunity to extort consumers by not selling the exact products as seen on the platform to the consumers. Thus, there is need for consumers of this form of business to be protected.  This is due to poor level of policy implementation, laxity on the path of government in tracking those vendors who practice illegal e-commerce, the situation has worsened and there are some of the difficulties and reason why people now prefer to go to the market and shops to buy especially to safe themselves from less quality goods, from frauds and related malpractices ploughing this sector in the world and Cameroon in particular, thereby leading to a drop in E-commerce transaction.

1.3  Objective of the Research

1.3.1 Main Objective

The main objective of this study is to examine e-commerce transaction on consumer’s protection in Cameroon.

1.3 Specific Objective:

2. To analyze the concepts of E-commerce transactions on consumer protection in Cameroon.
3. To access Consumer protection in Electronic Commerce Contracts in Cameroon.
4. To investigate the Challenges to the protection of consumers in e-commerce transactions in Cameroon.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions shall serve as a guide throughout this work.

1.4.1 Main Research Question

1) Are consumers protected via electronic commerce in Cameron?

1.4.2 Specific Research Questions

2) What are the concepts of consumer protection on e-commerce transactions on consumer protection in Cameroon?

3) What is Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce Contracts in Cameroon?

4) What are the challenges to the protection of consumers in e-commerce transactions in Cameroon?

[1] Prof .Djeufact Rolland (2019) Lecture notes on E-Commerce, University of Bamenda, Unpublished.

[2]Prof. Djeufact Rolland (2019) Lecture notes on E-commerce, University of Bamenda, unpublished.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Aloysuis Nvenakeng Tazitabong (2010) Elements of Computer Literacy page 113, revised edition, first printed on May 2002, reprinted in 2003, 2005 and 2010.

[5] A Goldstein & D.O’Connor, E-Commerce for development: prospects and policy issues” OECD Development Center at http:www.oecd.org/dev.Accessed on December 26th 2020.

[6] I.Carr, “UNCITRAL and Electronic Commerce: A light touch on Harmonization, Hertfordshire Law Journal (2003),1(1),pp14-21,p15.

[7]Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden, UK, 2005 (1991) Y.Zhao, Dispute Resolution In Electronic Commerce, ,P2,Quoting T Siebel & P.House, cyber rules and strategies for excelling at E-Business,1991,p1.

[8]  Cameroon in line with international development adopted law no 2010/021 of December 2010 governing electronic commerce in Cameroon.

[9] G.Friedman & R. Gellman, “ An information superhighway” on Ramp” for alternative dispute resolution”. 68 N.Y. St Bus J (1996) 38-39 .

[10] ADavidson, The Law of electronic commerce, Cambridge University press, New York, 2009, p 1.

[11] Ibid.

[12]  Dr Fon Fielding (2021)A Group work on Consumer’s protection law  unpublished paper.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Dr Fon Fielding( 2021) Lecture notes on Consumers Protection, University of Bamenda, Unpublished.

[15]  B.B, Kanyip, Consumer Protection in Nigeria, Law, Theory and Practice, Reckon Books Limited, Abuja, Nigeria, 2005, p 150.

[16] Dr Fon Fielding( 2021) Lecture notes on Consumers Protection Law , University of Bamenda, Unpublished.

[17] Prof Djeufact Rolland (2019) Lecture notes on E-Commerce, University of Bamenda, Unpublished.