Online contracts can provide fertile ground for disputes. The trick is to set-up your online click-through agreement in such a way that the court will have no choice but to uphold it.  In October 2006, in the decision in Person v. Google Inc. 2006 WL 2884444 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 11, 2006) [See Law Professor Eric Goldman’s link], the internet behemoth successfully deflected a lawsuit brought in New York State. Google won based on the forum selection clause in its mandatory click-through AdWords contract, which forces disputes to be brought in California, Google’s home turf.  Google won the same battle in a different lawsuit in 2004 (American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc. v. Google, Inc., 1:04 cv 00642 LLS (S.D.N.Y. 2004)). This doesn’t mean the dispute is over. Merely that it must go forward in California.

In Canada, we’ve got the benefit of a number of cases, such as Rudder v. Microsoft, a 1999 decision which upheld the validity of Microsoft’s online MSN agreement.  In a number of provinces we also have the benefit of the Electronic Transactions Act [Alberta Version] which sets out a number of requirements for e-commerce businesses.