According to Shakespeare, “[a] rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Congress has enacted many statutes to protect consumers; however, courts and agencies have struggled to determine whether those laws still apply when sellers offer the same basic service through new electronic methods using terminology different from that found in the statutes. So, for courts and agencies, the rose by another name does not smell as sweet. For example, does the law treat a prepaid card in a digital wallet—such as PayPal or Venmo—the same as a plastic prepaid card in a traditional leather wallet?
Congress never contemplated these new ways of conducting business because laws protecting consumers were enacted decades ago. These new ways, however, are merely new methods of providing the types of services and contracting that Congress has regulated in current law. Consequently, it is not clear that electronic commerce (e-commerce) should be excluded from regulation. This Article briefly discusses a few instances that illustrate the confusion that consumer e-commerce has produced.
