In response to a quarrel occurred between an online retailer and eBay, where the retailer’s account used to sell was deactivated, Catanzaro’s Court of Law intervened by ordering eBay to reactivate the account, while clarifying certain cornerstones in the contractual relationship between the two. These considerations were known already, but were never highlighted in such an explicit way. The Court of Law has ordained that this type of contract is regulated by the Civil Code and not by the Consumer Code (D.lgs. 205/2005) or the Subcontractor Law (Law 192/98).
Furthermore, it has ordained that when a contract is stipulated through the net, the contract is effectively clinched by the parties through a simple click; not needing any particular technicalities. This is true for a general contract, but doesn’t apply to those contracts that require a mandatory form and, above all, it has no effect on oppressive clauses, i.e. those clauses that are particularly onerous and that, as the law demands, should be explicitly approved in writing.