Research On The Validity Of The Standard Terms In The User Agreements Of Shopping Websites

The so-called standard terms are the clauses which are drawn up by one contracting party for reusing in advance and are not available for the other party to negotiate. The earliest form of standard terms which appeared in some industries should date back to the1900s. It should be said that to some extent the standard terms have changed the traditional way of contracting, and have tremendously impacted on the principle of freedom of contract. After1950s, standard terms were used in almost all the commercial fields extensively. Meanwhile, because of the extremely development of the information and electronic, online shopping, which is different from the common ones, appeared after1990s as a new shopping mode. Every consumer will come across a bunch of standard terms when they are shopping online. These standard terms maintain their basic features, however, they also bring some new problems because of the particular network environment.In online shopping, there are more and more disputes about standard terms, including the user agreements settled between shopping websites and consumers. When some certain acts of the shopping websites cause the loss, are those websites available to do so with impunity? Therefore, this requires us to do the research on the validity of the standard terms in the user agreements of shopping websites.This thesis focuses on the legal relationship between consumers and the shopping websites, and based on the user agreements of the shopping websites. It is divided into four parts to discuss the validity of the standard terms in the user agreements of shopping websites.The first part is to analyze the connotation and features of the standard terms of user agreements. The differences of features between the standard terms of user agreements and those common ones are analyzed based on the summary of the connotation and features of the common standard terms. This is the premise of this thesis, and solid foundation for the later discussion of the validity of the standard terms in the user agreements of shopping websites.The second part is about the comparative analysis of the user agreements of shopping websites. Four shopping websites’user agreements have been chosen to be compared and analyzed in order to find the escape clauses. And then make a discussion why we should do the research on the validity of the standard terms in the user agreements of shopping websites.The third part is to discuss the validity of the standard terms in the user agreements of shopping websites. In this part, the necessity to do the research on the validity of the standard terms is to be demonstrated first. Then I summarize the legislations about standard terms of our country and the limitation to determine the validity of the escape clauses. After that, I try to analyze the foreign relevant legislations. Through the comparison of the domestic and foreign legislations, the validity of the escape terms in the user agreements of shopping websites is to be discussed.The forth part is to bring the suggestions about the institutions of the standard terms in the user agreements of shopping websites, for instance, to improve the legal status of the relevant legislations and refine the legislations about the standard terms of user agreements, to strengthen supervision and guidance through administrative regulations, civil associations and self-regulatory organizations. Therefore, the relevant regulations can be improved and the legitimate rights and interests of consumers can be better safeguarded.