Electronic Commerce Act

• The Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 (R.A. NO. 8792) recognizes the vital role of information and communications technology (ICT) in nation-building
• The law aims to facilitate domestic and international dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements, contracts and exchanges and storage of information through the utilization of electronic, optical and similar medium, mode, instrumentality and technology to recognize the authenticity and reliability of electronic document related to such activities and to promote the universal use of electronic transaction in the government and general public
• The law shall apply to any kind of data message and electronic document used in the context of commercial and non-commercial activities to include domestic and international dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements, contracts and exchanges and storage of information
• Addressee


  A person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic data message or electronic document
• Computer


  Any device or apparatus which, by electronic, electro-mechanical, or magnetic impulse, or by other means, is capable of receiving, recording, transmitting, storing, processing, retrieving, or producing information, data, figures, symbols or other modes of written expression according to mathematical and logical rules or of performing any one or more of these functions
• Electronic Data Message

  Information generated, sent, received or stored by electronic, optical or similar means
• Information and Communications System


  A system intended for and capable of generating, sending, receiving, storing or otherwise processing electronic data messages or electronic documents and includes the computer system or other similar device by or in which data is recorded or stored and any procedures related to the recording or storage of electronic data message or electronic document
• Electronic Signature

  Any distinctive mark, characteristic and/or sound in electronic form, representing the identity of a person and attached to or logically associated with the electronic data message or electronic document or any methodology or procedures employed or adopted by a person and executed or adopted by such person with the intention of authenticating or approving an electronic data message or electronic document
• Electronic Document


  Information or the representation of information, data, figures, symbols or other modes of written expression, described or however represented, by which a right is established or an obligation extinguished, or by which a fact may be prove and affirmed, which is receive, recorded, transmitted, stored, processed, retrieved or produced electronically
• Electronic Key


  A secret code which secures and defends sensitive information that cross over public channels into a form decipherable only with a matching electronic key
• Intermediary


  A person who in behalf of another person and with respect to a particular electronic document sends, receives and/or stores provides other services in respect of that electronic data message or electronic document
• Originator


  A person by whom, or on whose behalf, the electronic document purports to have been created, generated and/or sent
• Service Provider

  A provider of on-line services or network access or the operator of facilities therefore, including entities offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for online communications, digital or otherwise, between or among points specified by a user, of electronic documents of the user's choosing; or the necessary technical means by which electronic documents of an originator may be stored and made accessible to designated or undesignated third party
• Except as otherwise agreed by the parties, an offer, the acceptance of an offer and such other elements required under existing laws for the formation of contracts may be expressed in, demonstrated and proved by means of electronic data messages or electronic documents and no contract shall be denied validity or enforceability on the sole ground that it is in the form of an electronic data message or electronic document or that any or all of the elements required under existing laws for the formation of contracts is expressed, demonstrated and proved by means of electronic data, messages or electronic documents
• Electronic transactions made through networking among banks, or linkages thereof with other entities or networks, and vice versa, shall be deemed consummated upon, the actual dispensing of cash or the debit of one account and the corresponding credit to another, whether such transaction is initiated by the depositor or by an authorized collecting party
• The obligation of one bank, entity, or person similarly situated to another arising therefrom shall be considered absolute and shall not be subjected to the process of preference of credits
• As between the originator and the addressee of an electronic data message or electronic document, a declaration of will or other statement shall not be denied legal effect, validity or enforceability solely on the ground that it is in the form of an electronic data message