Saint Vincent & the Grenadines’ Electronic Transaction Act of 2015

The Electronic Transactions Act 2015 from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is designed to provide legal recognition and support for electronic transactions, ensuring they hold the same weight and legal effect as traditional paper-based processes. The Act aims to facilitate and safeguard electronic transactions, promoting their use through legal recognition and protection while ensuring there are adequate measures in place to handle issues such as security, consumer protection, and enforcement.

Part i: Preliminary

• Sections 1-6: Establishes the act’s application, definitions of terms, and the general framework. It declares the act’s applicability to electronic documents, signatures, and transactions, and outlines exclusions where electronic forms cannot replace traditional forms (e.g. wills, property transfer).

Part ii: Requirements for legal recognition

• Sections 7-15: Defines the legal recognition of electronic communications and records, ensuring that information isn’t denied validity just because it is in electronic form. It includes provisions for retaining electronic records and the conditions under which electronic forms meet legal requirements.

Part iii: Electronic contracts

• Sections 16-21: Covers the formation and validity of contracts formed electronically. It discusses how offers and acceptances can be exchanged via electronic means and specifies how errors in electronic communications can be addressed.

Part iv: Electronic signatures

• Sections 22-25: Details requirements for electronic signatures to be considered as valid as handwritten ones. It includes measures for authenticating these signatures and recognising foreign certificates.

Part v: Secure electronic records and signatures

• Sections 26-28: Establishes criteria for what constitutes a secure electronic record or signature, focusing on security procedures that verify the integrity of electronic records.

Part vi: Information security procedures providers

• Sections 29-30: Regulates providers of specified security procedures, setting out the legal framework for their operation and the standards they must meet.

Part vii: Electronic governance

• Sections 31-32: Facilitates the use of electronic records and communications in governance, requiring public records to be accessible electronically.

Part viii: Intermediaries and electronic commerce service providers

• Sections 33-35: Outlines the responsibilities and liabilities of intermediaries and electronic commerce service providers, particularly in relation to the handling of electronic records.

Part ix: Consumer protection

• Sections 36-38: Provides protections for consumers engaging in electronic transactions, including disclosure requirements for electronic commerce and rights to cancel transactions.

Part x: Contravention and enforcement

• Sections 39-40: Defines penalties for violations of the act, including fines and imprisonment for false information or non-compliance with the act’s provisions.

Part xi: Miscellaneous

Sections 41-42: Gives the minister the power to make regulations to further the act’s intentions and specifies that the previous Electronic Transactions Act is repealed.