In the present digital and cyber era of the world, Contracts play a very important role in day to day to life of a person. Every business wants to grow and develop friendly relations with their customers to gain and extract maximum profits. Every relation is tied up with some obligations. A consumer and a business is mostly tied up with rights and legal obligations which is based upon the contract between the parties.

A layman often confuses an Agreement and Contract to be the same thing but in the legal sense, the effect of contract and Agreement is different. An agreement is said to be a set of promises amongst the parties who are agreeing upon something which is not enforceable or legally binding.

Whereas a contract is enforceable by law. Therefore it is considered that all agreements are not contract but all contracts are agreement. Agreements which are enforceable by law are known as contracts. But to be enforceable by law, an agreement must possess the essential elements of a valid contract as contained under section 10 of Indian Contract must be satisfied:

1. Offer and acceptance: There must be a ‘lawful offer’ and a ‘lawful acceptance’.

2. Intention to create legal relations: There must be an intention among the parties that the agreement should be attached by legal consequences and to create legal obligations.

3. Lawful consideration: There must be presence of ‘consideration’ amongst the parties. Consideration is defined as the price paid by one party for the promise of the other.

4. Capacity of parties: The parties to an agreement must be competent to contract, otherwise it cannot be enforced by a court of law. The person forming or entering into a contract must be of legal age i.e. 18yrs, He must not be a minor. The person should be mentally fit. The person should not be barred by law to form a contract.

5. Free consent: Free consent of all the parties to an agreement is necessary to form a valid contract. ‘Consent’ means that parties must have agreed upon the same thing in the same sense. It must not be obtained by Force, undue-influence, fraud or misrepresentation.

6. The parties to an agreement must agree for a lawful object.

7. The contracts which are made must not expressly be barred by law.

E – Contracts:

Contracts which are in electronic form are known as E-contracts. E-contracts are inexpensive and time-saving and so are convenient for companies who have to form contracts at large scale.

There are three types of E-contracts;

1) Click wrap contracts :

A clickwrap agreement is mostly found as part of the installation process of software packages. It is also known as “click-through” agreement or clickwrap license. Clickwrap agreements allow “a buyer to manifest assent to the terms of a contract by clicking on an acceptance button that appears while the buyer obtains or installs the product.” A buyer cannot start using the software until he or she has clicked on the button accepting the terms and conditions of the agreement. Click-wrap agreements require buyer action in order to begin usage but do not guarantee cognizance of the agreement terms. Buyers can assent to the contract without even reading it in order to use the product. Buyers cannot negotiate and must, therefore, accept the terms as they are. Most courts find these agreements enforceable. Understandably, concern remains that click-wrap agreements may be accepted without users actually reading or understanding contract terms when manifesting assent. Click-wrap agreements can be of the following types:

a) Type and Click where the user must type “I accept” or other specified words in an on-screen box and then click a “Submit” or similar button. This displays acceptance of the terms of the contract. A user cannot proceed to download or view the target information without following these steps.

b) Icon Clicking where the user must click on an “OK” or “I agree” button on a dialogue box or pop-up window. A user indicates rejection by clicking “Cancel” or closing the window.Shrink-wrap Contracts

2) Shrink wrap contracts are license agreements or other terms and conditions which can only be read and accepted by the consumer after opening the product. The term describes the shrink. Wrap plastic wrapping used to coat software boxes, though these contracts are not limited to the software industry. Shrink-wrap agreements operate slightly differently. For example, they are used when one purchases off-the shelf software. The agreement is imprinted on the software box, CD-ROM case, or other materials included inside the package. “The license begins when the purchaser reads its terms and tears open the cellophane wrapping or shrink-wrap that surrounds the package.” Buyers are supposed to return the software package to the retailer if they elect not to abide by the agreement. Courts are similarly concerned about buyers actually receiving notice of the sale, consciously agreeing to the sale, and conditioning the sale on acceptance of the license.

3)Browse Wrap Contracts:

 A browse wrap agreements are generally found in a website or a downloadable product, these contracts are published on a particular webpage and user have to find these terms and conditions by browsing to that particular web page. Because generally these contracts are hidden.