The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) is an act that was introduced alongside the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN Act) to ensure the validity of electronic contracts and signatures (Buchanan, 2018). For the warranty to be valid, several factors should be met. Firstly, both parties must agree on the terms and conditions beforehand. Secondly, depending on the context of the transaction, different types of agreements can be made. Nonetheless, this agreement must suit the proposed agreement types of UETA to be valid.
Although both parties provided electronic signatures, this contract is not valid for several reasons. Firstly, both the seller and consumer must agree on the terms of the transaction. Nonetheless, in this case, the seller-provided misleading information by omitting the word ‘slot.’ As a result, consumers assumed that both llama sweaters and IPod are being sold for $450. Thus, the two parties had different understandings of the terms of the agreement. Consequently, the electronic deal is not valid because of different interpretations of the contract by the two parties.
In addition to a misunderstanding of the contract, the agreement between two parties does not suit the agreement types that are suitable for being signed by electronic signatures. In this case, the deal was similar to a conversation between seller and buyer. Since this type of agreement is unacceptable, electronic signatures do not make it valid. Consequently, the deal does not suit the jurisdiction of the UETA.
To sum up, the UETA, in combination with ESIGN Act, enables people to make electronic contracts valid. Nonetheless, certain conditions must be met for the agreement to be usable. In the case of selling the llama sweater with the IPod slot, these conditions were not met. Firstly, the seller unintentionally provided misleading information, resulting in further confusion for the consumer. Consequently, both parties did not fully agree on the terms of the contract. Moreover, the type of agreement did not meet the requirements of the UETA, making the warranty not valid.
Reference
Buchanan, B., & Naqvi, N. (2018). Building the future of EU: Moving forward with international collaboration on the blockchain. The Journal of the British Blockchain Association, 1(1), 1–4.