Who Should Be Liable in a Virtual Enterprise Network?

The opportunities of e-commerce are well known. Virtual enterprises (VEs) are a result of e-business too which emerged as a reaction to fast evolving market trends. Although VEs already got much attention in the scientific literature, the legal implications have come too short so far. Especially the issue of liability has not been covered. This paper will show the needs for virtual enterprising and obstacles to the future development of which the issue of trust is one of the most important. Especially consumers' trust could be enhanced by a clear regulation of VE's liability. We will therefore present several models on possible liability rules and a concept which meets the requirements of providing adequate economic incentives for the participating companies and being easy to handle by consumers