Formation du contrat électronique: l’acceptation entre mutations et orthodoxie (Formation of Electronic Contracts: The Acceptance between Mutations and Orthodoxy)

French Abstract: La doctrine a souvent debattu sur la nature du droit du cyberespace, c’est-a-dire le type de regles qui doivent encadrer les transactions electroniques. La formation du contrat electronique B2B et B2C permet d’aborder ce debat sous un angle pratique, qui met le legislateur devant deux options connues: l’une, qui encourage l’elaboration de regles typiques, compte tenu d’une specificite presumee de ces contrats; l’autre, tendant a privilegier le droit existant, eventuellement adapte. Le formalisme issu des recentes productions legislatives, notamment en droit de la cyberconsommation, reaffirme le role essentiel du consentement dans la formation du contrat, avec la reconduction automatique des operations traditionnelles de l’offre et de l’acceptation. Mais dans le cyberespace, la maniere d’exprimer ces deux operations beneficie de balises pratiques plus ou moins precises, peut-etre pour eviter que des regles imperatives en la matiere ne vieillissent trop rapidement a cause du context technologique en perpetuelle transformation. Or, cette hesitation, peut-etre ce choix, a fait emerger plusieurs modalites d’expression de l’acceptation dont la validite n’est pas acquise de facon mecanique, mais demeure frequemment suspendue a l’appreciation des juges. Mais en examinant les motifs progressivement developpes par les tribunaux en common law et en droit civil, de meme qu’en doctrine, les auteurs decelent une constante, un critere invariable dans l’appreciation du rituel de l’acceptation en ligne. Cette analyse depasse ainsi ces techniques apparues des usages, c’est-a-dire le Box-Top, Shrink-Wrap, Browse-Wrap, Hybrid Click-Wrap, Hyperwrap, et tente de definir et de circonscrire cette valeur, ce critere qui inspire un retour aux fondements traditionnels du droit des contrats. Nous proposons, enfin, de recourir a des pictogrammes pour realiser la mise en oeuvre de ce critere.English Abstract: Doctrine has often debated the nature of cyberspace law; specifically, what type of rules must frame electronic transactions. The formation of the electronic B2B and B2C contract allows for engagement with this debate from a practical perspective, setting two options before the legislator: one that encourages the creation of conventional rules, given the presumed specificity of these contracts; the other, tending to favour the existing law, eventually adapted. The formalism of recent legislative initiatives, notably those in cyber-consumer law, reaffirms the central role of consent in contract formation with the renewal of the traditional operations of offer and acceptance. In cyberspace, the forms of expressing these two operations benefits from more or less specific practical signposts, possibly to avoid essential rules in this area too quickly becoming obsolete in a technological context in perpetual transformation. This hesitation, possibly this choice, has led to the emergence of multiple forms of expression of acceptance, the validity of which is not understood in a mechanical way, but that frequently remains dependant on judicial discretion. By examining the progressively developed reasoning of tribunals in common law and civil law jurisdictions, as well as scholarly work, the authors observe a constant, an unchanging criterion for the evaluation of the ritual of online acceptance. This analysis goes beyond techniques borne out of practice, such as “Box-Top”, “Shrink-Wrap”, “Browse-Wrap”, “Click-Wrap”, “Hybrid Click-Wrap”, “Hyperwrap”, and attempts to define and to limit the scope of this value, this criterion that inspires a return to the foundations of contract law. Finally, we propose the use of pictograms to implement this criterion.

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