E-commerce in COVID-19, Analysis of Legislative Gap in Georgia

COVID-19 is considered to be one of the biggest crises in modern history and has become the main challenge for businesses. Due to the pandemic, digital transformations accelerated significantly. Commercial activities and social interactions were also shifted to digital space. Despite the contact restrictions, most companies survived their businesses by actively using digital technologies as an alternative channel to interact with their consumers. Moreover, some research presented that consumers indicated a preference for online retailing over physical shopping in the post-COVID-19 future. Of course, this fact will bring to the fore the significance of e-commerce in trade even once the pandemic is over. This paper assesses the impact of COVID-19 on e-commerce businesses across developed or developing countries and analyses the gaps in Georgian legislation to meet the expectations of the digitalization process in light of relevant EU legal acts. Although by Association Agreement Member states of the European Union and Georgia agree that electronic commerce increases trade opportunities in many sectors and Georgia undertakes to introduce new regulations in e-commerce, the initiated draft law of Georgia on “electronic commerce” has not been adopted yet. Furthermore, this paper reviews the effectiveness of the Georgian regulatory framework on electronic contracts and electronic signatures, since they are the main legal mechanisms to regulate e-commerce dealings, identifies ongoing Georgian legislative problems in this field, and indicates more national commitment toward e-commerce reforms to satisfy the fast-growing demands in digital space.