Model of the Internet Escrow’s Legal Regulation as a Factor of Efficiency of Its Use in E-Commerce

Abstract

The global e-commerce market continues growing year by year. Alongside, low confidence of consumers in sellers on the Internet and electronic platforms remains one of the key issues predetermining relevance of the researches focused on looking for the tools to solve the issue of confidence between the e-commerce participants. Internet escrow is among those tools. In contemporary literature, the focus is mainly on the economic assessment of its use, while the efficiency of using the Internet escrow depends largely on the legal regulation in the relevant legal system. The research deals with the models of the Internet escrow’s legal regulation in the USA, where it has been settled long enough, and in the Russian Federation, where the legal and regulatory base in the relevant area is only at the initial stage of development. The aforesaid analysis renders it possible for us to identify the major “strong” properties of escrow, providing for efficiency of its use in e-commerce. The characteristics of various legal escrow models as presented in the research can be used as a criterion for choosing the escrow agent from among both the Russian and international companies offering the relevant services.