Concept of Place of Business in UNCITRAL Electronic Communications Convention
One of the common criteria for applying the international conventions is that the place of business is located in the member states. UNCITRAL Electronic Communication Convention (2005) the last codified document in electronic commerce while does not provide a definition from the place of business; states that the places of business are located in different states and without the necessity of its membership in the convention as a measure of the ability to apply it. Place of business which means any place where a party maintains a non-transitory establishment to pursue an economic activity other than the temporary provision of goods or services out of a specific location is generally chosen by the parties. If a party has not indicated a place of business and has more than one place of business, then the place of business is that which has the closest relationship to the relevant contract. The main issue that arises in this context is that in e-commerce environment which is not physically possible to imagine a fixed business place and transactions are concluded in cyberspace and are not within the scope of the specific territory, identification of this place is faced with specific difficulties. Thus, the concept of a permanent establishment or place of business should be interpreted in the light of the new technologies that can form of the database server or website.