This Article analyzes the global phenomenon of the Internet of Things (“IOT”) and its potential impact on consumer contracts for the sale of goods. Recent examples of IOT products include Amazon's Dash Replenishment Service, which allows household devices to automatically reorder goods. By 2025, the IOT is estimated to have an economic impact of as much as $11.1 trillion. To date, there are approximately fifteen billion interconnected devices, and by 2020, there will be fifty billion such devices worldwide. IOT devices will revolutionize the way that consumers shop for consumable supplies and other goods. Consumers will no longer need to log on to a company's website or use a mobile application to purchase goods but will be able to conclude contracts for the sale of goods by using IOT devices. This Article contends that the legion of IOT data expected to be generated about consumers and their preferences will worsen preexisting information asymmetry in consumer contracts to the benefit of companies; increase the lack of proximity between consumers and the contract formation process; further encourage consumers' failure to read and understand contract terms prior to contracting; and likely lead businesses to further take advantage of consumer ignorance and apathy by including one-sided contract terms, such as unilateral amendment provisions and terms that restrict consumer access to judicial process. Common law agency principles, e-commerce statutes, contract law, and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (“Article 2”) are unlikely to effectively address these concerns. This Article suggests important amendments to Article 2 and argues that courts should adjust their application of existing contract law and agency principles to account for the new automatic and interface-free contracting environment that the age of the IOT will herald.

In the Internet of Things (IoT) era, online activities are no longer limited to desktop or laptop computers, smartphones and tablets. Instead, these activities now include ordinary tasks, such as using an internet-connected refrigerator or washing machine. At the same time, the IoT provides unlimited opportunities for household objects to serve as surveillance devices that continually monitor, collect and process vast quantities of our data. In this work, Stacy-Ann Elvy critically examines the consumer ramifications of the IoT through the lens of commercial law and privacy and security law. The book provides concrete legal solutions to remedy inadequacies in the law that will help usher in a more robust commercial law of privacy and security that protects consumer interests.

This thoroughly updated Research Handbook examines the recent exponential growth of data use in society and its implications for legal research and practice. It explores contemporary research in the field of data science, as well as the operationalization of data for use in healthcare, urban governance and smart household devices, among others.

The Future of the Law of Contract brings together an impressive collection of essays on contract law. Taking a comparative approach, the aim of the book is to address how the law of contract will develop over the next 25 years, as well as considering the ways in which changes to the way that contracts are made will affect the law. Topics include good faith; objectivity; exclusion clauses; economic duress; variation of contract; contract and privacy law in a digital environment; technological change; Choice of Court Agreements; and Islamic finance contracts. The chapters are written by leading academics from England, Australia, Canada, the United States, Singapore and Malaysia. As such, this collection will be of global interest and importance to professionals, academics and students of contract law.

This is the third edition of the widely acclaimed and successful casebook on contract in the Ius Commune series, developed to be used throughout Europe and beyond by anyone who teaches, learns or practises law with a comparative or European perspective. The book contains leading cases, legislation and other materials from English, French and German law as the main representatives of the legal traditions within Europe, as well as EU legislation and case law and extracts from the Principles of European Contract Law. Comparisons are also made to other international restatements such as the Vienna Sales Convention, the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Draft Common Frame of Reference and so on. Materials are chosen and ordered so as to foster comparative study, complemented with annotations and comparative overviews prepared by a multinational team. The third edition includes many new developments at the EU level (including the ill-fated proposal for a Common European Sales Law and further developments linked to the digital single market) and in national laws, in particular the major reform of the French Code civil in 2016 and 2018, the UK's Consumer Rights Act 2015 and new cases. The principal subjects covered in this book include: An overview of EU legislation and of soft law principles, and their interrelation with national law The distinctions between contract and property, tort and restitution Formation and pre-contractual liability Validity, including duties of disclosure Interpretation and contents; performance and non-performance Remedies Supervening events Third parties.

Digital transformation is reshaping the business arena as new, successful digital business models are increasing agility and presenting better ways to handle business than the traditional alternatives. Industry 4.0 affects everything in our daily lives and is blurring the line between the physical, the biological, and the digital. This created an environment where technology and humans are so closely integrated that it is impacting every activity within the organizations. Specifically, contracting processes and procedures are challenged to align with the new business dynamics as traditional contracts are no longer fitting today's agile and continuously changing environments. Businesses are required to facilitate faster, more secure, soft, and real-time transactions while protecting stakeholders’ rights and obligations. This includes agile contracts which are dynamically handling scope changes, smart contracts that can automate rule-based functions, friction-less contracts that can facilitate different activities, and opportunity contracts that looks toward the future. Innovative and Agile Contracting for Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 analyzes the consequences, benefits, and possible scenarios of contract transformation under the pressure of new technologies and business dynamics in modern times. The chapters cover the problems, issues, complications, strategies, governance, and risks related to the development and enforcement of digital transformation contracting practices. While highlighting topics in the area of digital transformation and contracting such as artificial intelligence, digital business, emerging technologies, and blockchain, this book is ideally intended for business, engineering, and technology practitioners and policy makers, along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in understanding the scope, complexity, and importance of innovative contracts and agile contracting.