A proteção do ciberconsumidor e o princípio da boa-fé objetiva

Abstract

This thesis is mostly aimed at analyzing legal implications arising from the use of World Wide Web as a way of doing commercial transactions. Namely, its challenges, opportunities, forms of regulation, prevention and control of abusive practices. Adopting a historical perspective, it is shown that humanity is now living the revolution of information technology in which the Internet plays an important role as the way of doing electronic commerce. It is firstly enphasized the complexity and challenges of the virtual consumption. Then, a set of related questions is analyzed, that is to say: the extreme depersonalization of the contract, technical and informational asymmetries, the dematerialization of the means of concluding the agreement, the instrument, the object (in some cases) and contracts vices, the deterritorialization and the occasional internationality of electronic contracting and, finally, the absence of legal regulation to protect the cyberconsumer. This is the background behind the intensification of cyberconsumer s vulnerability. He is the lay party in the consumption relationship via the Internet, which for many has its mysteries, faced with suppliers and professionals who have full control over their own virtual environment, the information about the product or service. The Internet does not equalize, on the contrary, amplifies the imbalances of information and of bargaining power. Thus, in the online commerce the emergence of specifics problems is inevitable, as well as the intensification of others, particularly unfair and deceptive trade practices. In the absence of specific statutory/legal regulation, electronic commerce needs to be regulated with the help of legal principles. The principle of objective good faith is considered the skillful tool to lead to the solution of an increasing number of conflicts of interest in electronic marketplace. Due to its special flexibility and wide field of incidence it is attributed to that principle the function of ensuring the completeness of the legal system, becoming the most able instrument to solve conflicts accruing from the electronic consumer hiring.