Uniform Electronic Transaction Act

The United Electronics Transactions Act

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is a non-profit unincorporated association. They created the United Electronics Transactions Act to give binding status to electronic documents and signatures for e-commerce users and establish a national standard for electronic transactions across the United States. Before this Act, banks had to keep physical paper copies of checks they processed. Electronic form simplifies storage and access for these records. With this Act electronic records and signatures are as legal as paper and manually signed signatures.

Originally banks and the IRS were wary of accepting electronic signatures. Once it was proven in court and by regulators it was more acceptable. When the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act was passed, it pushed most states to accept electronic documents and signatures as legal and official records. The consumer has to consent to the electronic delivery system being used.

In order to be fully enforceable the electronic agreement must be available for full review by the user. To avoid the defense of not having seen it, the United Electronics Transactions Act gives a few suggestions to make sure the agreement is seen.

• Use a pop-up screen or any other way that requires the user to notice that an agreement is being entered into.

• Make the user have to scroll through the entire agreement instead of just clicking the “yes” button.

• Make the agreement printable and able to be saved on the users computers.

• Make the agreement easy to read instead of “legalese”....