EP2306391A1 - Intermediation method and system for the purchase and/or sale of products via a communication network - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves opening an electronic purse for carrying out cash payment of a sum of money so as to purchase and/or sell a product. Sale offers of the product are marketed for distribution of a product description on a website by verifying a text of the product description so as to allow distribution of the product description. The payment of the sum of money is carried out so as to finalize purchase of the product described on the website by validating the payment of the sum of money. An independent claim is also included for a system for purchase and/or sale of products via a communication network.

Description

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to the field of the purchase and / or sale of products over a communication network, more particularly on the Internet, and in particular the improvement of the security of the procedures related to the purchase and / or the selling products.

State of the art

Nowadays, many people use websites that buy or sell products of any kind through a system of supply of purchases. This type of website allows a seller to make available on the server associated with the website the product to put on sale. The seller sets the minimum and / or maximum purchase price of the product. A potential buyer can access the product description for sale by connecting to the website. If the potential buyer obtains the best offer to buy and if the seller accepts this offer to purchase, the seller and the buyer must then make a financial transaction so that the seller can actually receive from the buyer the amount of the price indicated in the offer to purchase. For this purpose, the seller and the buyer must come into contact to determine the method of routing the product held by the seller and the corresponding amount of money due by the buyer. The transaction takes place directly between the seller and the buyer who can either meet physically or use the postal way to exchange the product against the sum of money. Such websites offer a rating system so that buyers can indicate whether the transaction with a specific seller was successful. These websites also have a legal aid service to assist sellers and / or buyers who have been victims of fraud during the transaction. For example, the seller has correctly transferred the product to the buyer but the buyer has not paid the money in exchange or the buyer has paid the amount of money to the seller but the latter has not transmitted the product in return. However, such websites do not have any effective means to guarantee the solvency and the seriousness of both the seller and the buyer before the transaction is completed, ie before the transmission of the seller's product to the buyer or before the sale. transmission of the sum of money from the buyer to the seller. Moreover, these websites can not guarantee the conformity of the product with the product description published on the website as well as the actual delivery of the product.

Summary of the invention

The present invention proposes to solve some of the disadvantages as described in the prior art.

Brief description of the drawings

• la figure 1 représente un schéma du système selon l'invention,
• la figure 2 représente un organigramme des étapes du procédé selon l'invention.

The objects, objects and features of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description given with reference to the drawings in which:

• the figure 1 represents a diagram of the system according to the invention,
• the figure 2 represents a flowchart of the steps of the method according to the invention.

Detailed description of an embodiment

The figure 1 presents the structure of the intermediation system according to the invention. Thus, one or more users have a machine 100 connected to the Internet network 200. The machine 100 includes a a desktop computer or a portable electronic device such as a personal digital assistant, a mobile phone, a laptop or any other device capable of communicating with the Internet network 200. The machines 100 can connect to the network 200 independently of each other. As shown on the figure 1 a service provider has a server 300 also connected to the network 200. The server 300 comprises a fixed computer. The service provider may also have a set of servers interconnected by a specific network. The server 300 manages a set of data by means of one or more databases 310. The data relate, for example, to details relating to users of the service or to the products concerned by the service. Some of these data are put online on the network 200 by means of a specific website. In the situation where several servers are connected to each other, the website acts as an interface between the different servers. In general, a user does not have direct access to the server 300. Thus, the machines 100 can access this data by connecting to the specific website. The website acts as an interface between the different machines 100. The service described in the present invention relates to the purchase and / or sale of products between a buyer and a seller.

In the context of a first use of the service, we will describe the various steps of the process, as indicated on the figure 2 and leading to a purchase / sale transaction of a product between a selling user and a buying user. Some of the steps of the method are common to both types of user, other steps are specific to the selling user or the buying user. The process steps are performed by different modules. Each module is composed of 3 parts. The first part includes a model that integrates the procedure of the module. The second part of the module includes a controller that is called or activated at each stage of the model procedure to indicate to the model the next step to perform. The third part of the module includes a display device that displays the current step, depending on the progress of the procedure and any errors or problems encountered by the controller.

Registration on the server

During a first use of the service, the user connects by means of a machine 100 to the service provider's website on the network 200. Thus, the user can access a registration form in order to proceed to its registration on the website as indicated in step 400. The user fills out the registration form to provide various information such as his name and address, his username, his password, his email address, his date of birth and his phone number. The user must also accept the conditions of use of the website by checking a corresponding box. When the user has completed the registration form, the service provider sends an electronic message to the user so that the user can check and validate the compliance of this information stored on the server 300. Then, the set of this information is then stored in the database 310, on the server 300. The service provider places the registration of the user on hold. The user can not use the purchase and / or sale service of the website during this waiting period.

In order to validate registration with the service provider, the user must send to the service provider supporting documents relating to the information contained in the registration form. These pieces include for example a photocopy of the identity card, proof of address. These documents must be provided within a predetermined period of the order of a few days from the first registration using the form. Supporting documents may be sent by post, facsimile, e-mail or downloaded from a machine 100 on the website for example. Upon receipt of the supporting documents, the service provider undertakes to compare the information provided in the registration form by the user with the information contained in the supporting documents.

If the comparison of the information reveals that the information contained in the form is authentic, not falsified and identical to the supporting documents provided, then the service provider validates the access to the service for the user and authorizes the opening of a personal account on the server 300. Therefore, the selling user and / or the buying user have a personal account.

If the comparison of the information reveals differences between the information contained in the form and the information contained in the supporting documents, the service provider sends an electronic message to the user. This e-mail message indicates the information recorded on the website that requires modification in order to comply with the information contained in the supporting documents. The user has a limited time to make these changes, for example a few days. If, at the end of this change request, the user provides no change of information or if differences persist, the service provider blocks the opening of a personal account for the user.

The personal account corresponds to a predetermined space for storing data in the database 310 as well as to an electronic purse. This personal account allows the user to use all the services offered by the website such as a personal email for example. Thus the user can buy and / or sell products on the website, use the means of communication made available on the website.

A registration module (not shown) groups all the steps to obtain the registration of a user. The registration module verifies that all the fields of the registration form are filled in. In addition, the registration module performs certain checks concerning the syntax of the user's email address, the geolocation of the user's postal address from an external module provided by a third party service. to create an alert to the service provider when the postal address does not exist in the geographical references, the acceptance of the general conditions, the verification of the non-presence of the information in the database 310, the availability of the name of user chosen by the user, the validity of the VAT or SIREN code provided by a professional user. All information transmitted before acceptance is submitted to the text verification module described below.

When the information has been accepted, the registration module sends an email to the user with a unique and temporary code to validate this information. In response to the validation of the user, the registration procedure continues with the step of verifying the personal data. A personal data verification module (not shown) makes it possible to carry out this step.

The personal data verification module is a module that gives access to the purchase / sale service as well as to the My Account module and to the My Account area described below. Each request for a voucher is recorded in the database 310. The service provider therefore connects to the verification module which makes it possible to search the information relating to the supporting documents according to the missing parts or according to the required actions such as the payment. The verification module makes it possible to manually record the acceptance or not, the date, the partial or total modification of the data transmitted from the forms such as the registration form. The validation of personal data unlocks the access to the My Account area of the user. The My Account area is linked to the Sell, Buy, Carry Money, Messaging and Dispute modules described below. The information concerning the validations or not of the PCs are stored in the database 310.

The user accesses the My Account managed by the My Account module from a page secured by an https protocol by means of a navigation module (not shown). The navigation module allows a visitor ie an unauthenticated user on the website to navigate. The navigation module serves as an interface between the computer of the visitor connected to the network and the database 310; the navigation module displays the pages of products on sale by calling a listing module (not shown). The listing module makes it possible to display the products described in the database 310, according to the sales category chosen by the selling user at the time of sale. The listing module displays the products according to the standard navigation option. This listing module is important because it only displays the deliverable or available products in the country of the navigation domain name. Thus for a navigation domain name ".fr", the module listing displays the products France, for a navigation domain name ".be", the listing module displays the products Belgium, etc. This listing module does not display products already sold or for which the sale has been completed. The listing module generates an error message if the category of the product is not filled.

The navigation module also makes it possible to establish a connection with other modules such as the registration module or the My Account module. This navigation module allows a user connected to the website to get personalized navigation by offering options such as changing the language, the display currency, the number of products per page as well as presentation options. some products.

The My Account module is a general interface for the user. The My Account module can be administered by the service provider from specific forms allowing the modification of user information. The My Account area allows the user to modify his personal data if he wishes. Thus, the user will have to repeat the validation step performed by the verification module concerning the new data transmitted. The My Account module records all user actions in the website database to enable further action by users.

Placing the wallet

Upon validation of the registration of the user, the service provider creates a user-specific electronic wallet as indicated in step 410. Thus, in the case of a buyer user, the latter can credit his electronic purse of a certain amount of money in order to subsequently purchase a product through the service provider's website. The electronic purse must always have a positive or zero amount for a sum of money. In order to transfer the amount of money to the electronic purse, the user must first fill out an electronic remittance slip on the website. Thus the user must specify the amount of the money transferred as well as the nature of the transfer such as a credit card, by check or bank transfer. The user must then print this slip and return it signed to the service provider by post, by facsimile, by email or by downloading from a machine 100 on the website for example. In parallel, the user must transfer the money to the electronic purse. The user can also transfer the sum of money with the bill and by means of a payment system proposed by the service provider such as a payment by check, for example. When the service provider receives the printed version of the form and notices the transfer of the money to the user's account, the service provider validates the payment of the sum of money to the user's account. Thus, the user can have the amount of money on the electronic purse to perform purchase transactions on the website of the service provider.

If the user makes a payment by check, the provider sends the user an e-mail message to confirm receipt of payment. The service provider will credit the user's e-wallet with the corresponding amount of money only after validating the receipt of this sum of money. Thus, the service provider guarantees the good availability of sums credited to the user's electronic wallet.

In the situation where the information contained in the bill does not correspond to the payment made by the user, the service provider cancels the payment of the sum of money and returns this sum of money to the user.

A wallet module allows the realization of the step of setting up the electronic wallet of the user. The wallet module is dependent on the modules My Account and Verification of personal data. The wallet module autonomously manages all transactions on the website. The user can access the e-wallet as soon as the user has access to the My Account area. The wallet module has three characteristics. The wallet module allows to consult the available balance as well as all the movements of funds of the user on the website. These consultations are possible for both the user and the service provider. The wallet module also includes an interface for the payment of sums of money, by listing pending requests. Finally, the wallet module allows you to create a payment request, using a corresponding form to generate a payment request form. All requests for payment as well as requests for repayment, described below, are recorded in the database 310. Requests for payment can be created from a form available on the same wallet module. The wallet module can also generate an alert to the service provider. These alerts are then processed by the personal data verification module, making it possible to validate or not specifically each request by sending an electronic message of information to the user after each action of the service provider.

The wallet module finally generates for the service provider at the end of each month the balance of user accounts, invoices and finally the list of payments. Information about transactions and funds is stored in database 310.

Sale of the product

In the case of a sales transaction, the selling user must complete the various fields of a descriptive form in order to provide detailed information on the product to be sold. The information concerns, for example, the name of the product, the minimum price for sale, the optional reserve price below which the selling user does not wish to sell the product, the dimensions of the product, the technical characteristics of the product. The user must detail the state of use, operation of the product and may also attach pictures of the product. The selling user must specify the delivery terms: delivery method proposed by the service provider or external delivery method, cost of delivery, time of packaging and delivery and the terms of a possible return of the product and the General conditions of sale of the user. The selling user must also specify whether the grouping for the purpose of a global delivery of different products purchased from the same sales user is authorized. The selling user also specifies the time of sale and the date of sale. sale of the product. When the descriptive form is fully completed, a text or syntax verification module (not shown) automatically verifies the terms contained in the descriptive form. This verification module allows the analysis of the various terms contained in the descriptive form to avoid the sale of products contrary to public order and morality or infringing intellectual property rights, or defamatory , or not respecting the general conditions of use of the website for example as described below.

If the proofing module does not issue an alert, the service provider sends an e-mail to the selling user to confirm the sale of the product and the online distribution of an advertisement that corresponds to the descriptive form of the product. as indicated in step 420.

If the syntax module issues an alert, it may be a first category alert or a second category alert. A first category alert indicates that the descriptive form contains a sequence of terms not authorized by the service provider. In the presence of such an alert, the service provider does not put the advertisement on the descriptive form online. However, all the information of the descriptive form is stored in the database 310. The service provider informs the seller user of the terms to be modified in the descriptive form in order to avoid triggering an alert at a next call. on sale. The service provider can validate the ad itself when the alert is caused by the use of an ambiguous term in the descriptive form. In other situations, the user must modify the descriptive form himself. In the situation where several advertisements of the same user cause repeated alerts, the service provider may penalize the seller user. Penalties include a temporary or permanent suspension of the user's personal account A second category alert indicates that the descriptive form contains terms that, depending on where in the descriptive form, trigger an alert for the corresponding ad. This second category alert is not blocking and the service provider has the possibility to modify the descriptive form so that the corresponding ad does not trigger an alert.

When the product is put on sale, no buyer user responds to the ad, or at least one buyer user responds to the ad.

In the situation where no buyer user responds to the ad, the seller user has the option to delete the ad completely. The selling user also has the possibility of modifying part of the advertisement by means of the descriptive form in order to resubmit the advertisement to a diffusion on the Internet site. Automatic text verification still applies in this situation.

In the situation where at least one buyer user responds to the advertisement by making an offer to purchase, the seller user can add descriptive comments and photos to complete the product description. The purchasing user also has the possibility of requesting further clarification from the selling user by using a contact form available in the corresponding advertisement. This form of contact makes it possible to send an electronic message to the selling user. These communications are stored in the database 310. The selling user can respond to this e-mail message by means of the e-mail associated with his personal account. The purchasing user can also specify whether the question asked can be publicly displayed in the advertisement as well as the response of the seller user.

A Sell module (not shown) allows you to perform the product sale step. The Sell module allows you to list a product on the site Internet ; the user is invited to fill in the necessary fields according to the descriptive form. The descriptive form is verified in the same way as the registration form with a verification of the fields provided, and an error notification if necessary. The Sell module connects to a photo management module that allows the server to resize the supplied images and allows the user to create a photo library. These photos all have a digital tattoo with the name of the user and the website. All data, before being definitively entered in the database 310, are submitted to the text verification module (described below), allowing in parallel with the user verification module, a verification of the transmitted data. . The text verification module compares the terms present in the page with two lists including a first list comprising prohibited words of the first category and a second list comprising prohibited words of the second category. The use of first-class words results in blocking the continuation of the purchase / sale process. The use of second category words produces an alert so that the service provider can control the content of the descriptive form. Thus, the service provider can possibly validate the sale of the product. These lists are also stored in the database 310. These lists may be modified or supplemented by the service provider. The text verification module does not include accented, uppercase, plural characters for syntactical comparison. Similarly, the reconciliation of second category terms or the presence of multiple terms may generate a first category alert for the product description form. The text verification module also removes any computer code, command, JavaScripts, HTML language, Internet link or any other form of content that can affect the proper functioning of the server or may pose a problem to the display of data. Regarding the sell module, the sales information is stored in the database 310. The sell module verifies the potential offer status when the seller decides to cancel the sale, modify or add comments. concerning the product offered for sale. For each of these actions, the sell module sends an e-mail message informing the user of the actual change. A user can save sales templates so that they can be resumed for future sale. This saves the user time for entering product data.

Purchase of the product

Therefore, as indicated in step 430, the different buyer users interested in the product offered for sale can issue offers to purchase during the time of sale. At the end of the period of sale, the service provider determines the best offer of purchase made by a final buyer user possibly taking into account the reserve price desired by the selling user. The website always has the best offer of minimum purchase, the price evolving according to it. With each new purchase offer from a buyer user, the service provider sends the buyer user an electronic message confirming the receipt of the offer to purchase on the website. The e-mail also indicates whether the offer to purchase is the best offer to buy at this time. The competing buyer (s) receive an email message if a purchase offer is better than those submitted by those buying users. Thus, these buyer users have the opportunity to make a new offer of purchase by clicking on a link established for this purpose in the email. The service provider guarantees the presence of a single best offer to buy, ie there can be only one buyer user at a new minimum price. In case of The buying user who has submitted their purchase offer in the first place has priority. Thus, another potential buyer can not issue a bid for the same amount. This offer to purchase must be greater than the previous one. Then, at the end of the scheduled end date, the service provider sends an e-mail to the end-user and the selling user. Thus, on the one hand the final buyer user is informed of the amount of the best offer to purchase. Thus the seller user has the opportunity to accept or refuse the offer to purchase. The service provider also sends an email to all buyer users who have submitted purchase offers for the product. Thus, these buyer users are informed that a final buyer user has won the best offer. As a result, the transaction is halted for these buyer users.

In the situation where no offer of purchase is made by any buyer, the service provider sends an email to the selling user informing them that no purchase offer has been sent by the seller. less a buyer user. In the situation where no offer of purchase reaches the amount desired by the selling user, the service provider sends an e-mail to the different buying users and the selling user informing them that the product has not been sold. been sold.

In the situation where a final buyer has won the best offer and after receiving the service provider's e-mail, the selling user must confirm their acceptance of the best offer. The selling user makes this confirmation on the service provider's website. The service provider transfers then this confirmation of acceptance of the sale by email to the end-user buyer.

In the situation where an end-user has won the best offer to buy, the selling user also has the option of rejecting the best offer to buy as long as this offer does not match the desired reserve price by the seller user for example. The selling user informs the service provider of this refusal by using the website of the service provider. The service provider then sends an email to the end-user purchaser informing him that the selling user has refused the purchase offer from the end-user. The service provider also sends an email to the seller user to confirm that the denial has been taken into account. The transaction then stops at this point.

In the situation where an end-user has obtained buy offer acceptances on several products for the same sales user, the end-user can opt for a grouping of different products. This grouping must take place within a predetermined period such as 15 days. Thus, if the final purchasing user finalizes the different transactions for the different products within this time, all the products will be managed and delivered at the same time. As a result, the end-user purchaser may be able to benefit from reduced costs for management fees and delivery costs.

At the end of the consolidation period or after a request for delivery of the buyer user from his personal account, the service provider sends an email to the seller user to inform him that this period has expired. In the situation of a grouping of products, a grouping module (not shown) automatically consolidates the different products of the same sales user for the same buyer user. Then, the final purchasing user selects on the service provider's website a delivery method according to the desire of the seller user in the purchase proposal. The service provider sends a confirmation email to the end-user to confirm the choice of delivery method. The service provider also sends an email to the seller user to inform him of the delivery method that the final purchasing user has selected.

A buy module allows the realization of the purchase step of the product. The Buy module allows the buying user to submit a purchase offer for a product. The buy module allows to display the product sheet with all the information entered during the sale as well as the public sheet of the selling user (username, city of residence, evaluation note, other products for sale , etc.). The buy module updates the price of the product according to the best and the lowest offer of purchase compared to the price of the object. The Buy module allows logged-in users to save purchase offers. The Buy module checks that the user is logged in and invites the user to enter the price they wish to submit. The price can not be lower than the price already in effect on the website or the minimum price entered by the seller user in case of absence of a buyer user. The buy module verifies that the price is valid according to these two conditions. Otherwise, the buy module blocks the procedure and displays on the website, the buyer user an error message. In the situation where the offer to purchase is accepted, the buyer user is directed to a summary page of his offer to purchase the product. The user must enter his password again to validate this summary page. Then, the buy module sends a message to the buyer user to confirm his offer. The information concerning the purchase offers is stored in the 310 database. This buy module is also in charge of closing the ads at the end of the sale, blocking the possibility of submitting subsequent offers to purchase. by another buyer user. This purchase module manages the sending of the electronic messages to the different parties to inform them of the status of their respective offers ie accepted, refused and thus allows to continue towards the finalization stage carried out by a transaction finalization module described below. . The serving provider can connect to this buy module in order to partially or completely modify, or cancel data entered by users. The buy module can also close a sale in advance or suspend it if necessary.

The Buy module also manages a dynamic display above the display frame of each ad, concerning the status of each buyer user: if there is no offer to purchase, the text that appears is "you have no offer in progress, if there is an offer to purchase, the text that appears is "your offer of ... is the best" or "your offer is exceeded", etc.

Regarding the status of a seller user, in the situation, the displayed texts can be: "your product has received an offer", "your product has not received an offer".

Because the buy module connects to the transaction finalization module, checks the status of the ad and notifies each party, these messages continue after the sale.

It is important to note that this buy module is capable of producing sales statistics, that is, finding specific information from the title of an advertisement and according to the category of the corresponding product sheets or sales statistics (average price, time of sale etc.)

Payment of the product

As a result, the payment process begins as indicated in step 440. The service provider charges the amount corresponding to the amount of the accepted purchase bid in the end user's electronic purse. Then the service provider puts the amount of money pending payment in the seller's electronic purse. The service provider then sends an email to the selling user informing him that the money has been withdrawn from the end user's e-purse. Upon receipt of this email, the final buyer user being in copy, the seller user at a predetermined time of 5 days for example to proceed with the shipment of the product or products. In the situation where the electronic wallet does not contain the amount of money required for the collection, the final buyer user has a predetermined period of 7 days for example to credit the electronic purse. In the absence of supply of the electronic purse, the service provider cancels the transaction and informs the user concerned by sending an electronic message. If such a situation of no supply is repeated, then the service provider may temporarily or permanently suspend the user's personal account.

The finalization module of the transaction is only available from the Buy module or the My Account module. The finalization module of the transaction allows to manage point by point the steps of the conclusion of the transaction: the user must connect to the transaction finalization module to validate or not manually from a form the acknowledgment of receipt of the offer 'purchase. After this validation, the user's wallet module intervenes to check the good availability of the funds before continuing the purchase procedure, if the availability is validated. The finalization module of the transaction verifies that the step is validated before the continuation of the purchase / sale procedure. The finalization module of the transaction sends a message to each party for information after completion of each step. The service provider can also connect to the transaction completion module to optionally cancel each step or request or restart a particular step. The finalization module of the transaction makes it possible to definitively conclude the purchase / sale procedure upon receipt of the product by the buyer user. If the receipt is effective, the procedure continues and the wallet module makes the payment of the buyer user to the seller user while charging the commission for the management fees of the service provider. Thus the purchase sale procedure ends with the purchase of a product. In the situation where the purchasing user does not validate the receipt of the product and the final conclusion of the purchase / sale procedure, the transaction finalization module calls the Litigation module described below.

The information concerning the finalization of the transactions is stored in the database 310.

Product shipment

If the user has performed a payment procedure validated by the service provider, the transaction continues with the shipment of the product as indicated in step 450. The service provider sends an electronic message to the selling user informing him of the pending payment of the buyer user. The selling user may choose a delivery method proposed by the service provider or an external delivery method. In the situation where the selling user chooses a delivery method proposed by the service provider, the selling user provides directly on the website of the service provider various information such as the weight of the package relating to the product to be shipped as well as the information necessary for drawing up the corresponding waybill. The service provider's server transmits this information to a postal company to obtain a tracer number to uniquely identify the seller's package. The information relating to the postal company is also stored in the database 310. In the situation where the selling user chooses an external delivery mode to the service provider, the selling user must provide the information necessary for the shipment of the service provider. parcels to a postal company. The selling user must also indicate on the service provider's website the tracer number that this postal company will communicate to him.

Thus, whatever the mode of delivery chosen, the service provider has the tracer number for the package shipped. Then, the service provider sends an e-mail to the end-user purchaser to provide him with the tracer number of the package and the name of the corresponding delivery company. Then, automatically and repeatedly, for example three times a day, a connection module (not shown) connects to the server of the postal company concerned to check the status of the various steps in the delivery of the package. In the situation where the server of the company is unavailable, the purchasing user must manually enter the correct receipt of the product.

Receipt of the product

On receipt of the package containing the product or products as indicated in step 460, the final buyer user has a predetermined period of 24 hours for example to acknowledge receipt of the delivery, using the website of the service provider. After acknowledging receipt of the product, the end-user purchaser must validate the conformity of the product received with the description of the corresponding advertisement of the product. If the received product is in accordance with the advertisement, the end-user purchaser can assign a rating to assess the behavior and honesty of the user seller during the completion of the transaction. In addition, the service provider may transmit the acknowledgment of delivery receipt to the selling user. Therefore, the seller's electronic purse is credited with the amount of money placed on hold by the service provider, excluding an amount corresponding to the service provider's management fee. Thus, the selling user can in turn assign a mark of appreciation to evaluate the behavior and honesty of the final buyer user when performing the transaction.

This final step closes the transaction.

Assessments and ratings of past transactions are available on each user's public personal accounts, allowing other portal users to quickly assess each user's seriousness.

In case of non-compliance, delivery problem or non-receipt of the product or products, a dispute procedure is opened as described in the next step, in order to block the payment process.

Litigation situation

The user seller and the end-user purchaser each have a period of a few days, for example 7 days after receipt of the product by the buyer to open a dispute, for example to exchange the product concerned or cancel the transaction.

In the situation where the end-user buyer is dissatisfied with the product he has received, the end-user purchaser has the option to return the product to the user seller, at his expense or under the conditions set by the user seller when the product goes on sale, in order to cancel the transaction. In the situation where the selling user is a professional, specific conditions listed on the sales form may apply. In the situation where the selling user is an individual, the end-user purchaser must be content with the conditions provided by the seller user, that is to say the possibility of returning or not returning the product concerned. In the situation where the product is returned to the selling user, the final purchasing user informs the service provider's server of the plotter number of the parcel that it sends back to the selling user. The service provider then sends an email to the selling user to inform him of the plotter number. Upon receipt of the package, the seller user validates the receipt of the package on the website. Thus, the service provider credits the end user's electronic purse with the amount of the transaction. The selling user is eventually charged the amount corresponding to the management fees.

In the situation where the final buyer user receives a defective product, the end-user purchaser has the option of returning the product to the seller user at the expense of the seller user. The seller user then has the opportunity to evaluate the transaction with the user Buyer. Thus, the final purchasing user informs the service provider's server of the plotter number of the parcel that it sends back to the selling user. The service provider then sends an email to the selling user to inform him of the plotter number. Then the selling user returns the replacement product, indicating on the service provider's website the plotter number relating to the package sent containing the new product. The service provider then forwards this tracer number to the end-user purchaser for sending the new product. Upon receipt of the package containing the new product, the end-user user acknowledges receipt using the service provider's website. Thus, the service provider credits the electronic purse of the selling user with the amount corresponding to the offer for purchase relating to the product, with the exception of the amount relating to the management fees of the service provider.

There is also a dispute identical to the previous one in case of non-receipt of a product. The procedure is identical: the selling user agrees to deliver a second time to the same address by re-entering the plotter number of the package. In all cases, disputes are automatically forwarded to the service provider to close the dispute and resolve the dispute, either automatically after 21 days or at the request of the user who has requested litigation. The service provider examines the dispute and, if necessary, resolves the dispute, as well as the possible retrocession of the various sums according to the accountabilities of the buyer and seller users. The findings are automatically transmitted by e-mail at the end of the litigation process. The corresponding sums of money are then credited or charged to the wallets of the users concerned.

A litigation module (not shown) performs the step of handling a dispute. The litigation module is used to manage a dispute procedure and resolve it as described above. However, the litigation module is dependent on the intervention of the service provider to finalize the litigation process.

The information concerning the disputes is stored in the database 310.

The selling user may use the sums received from sales made on the portal to buy products on the website, or decide to make a payment on his e-wallet. The portal user can also request a transfer of the sums of his wallet to his current bank account using the following procedure.

The user can decide the amount of the money to be returned in the electronic purse or the user can choose an automatic payment with a certain periodicity or a certain amount to be transmitted according to the balance remaining in the holder. electronic money and according to parameters or conditions filled in and completed in advance by the user.

Requests for payment are subsequently processed by the service provider who, if applicable, validates the request for payment and the means of payment chosen by the user (check or personal transfer). Reimbursement requests are processed each month. Users can, during the first 15 days of the month, request a refund request. Beyond the ^15th day, the request will be considered next month. Requests are always processed by the service provider in the last 15 days of each month. In case acceptance of the payment, payments are made on the date published on the website. If the service provider refuses the transfer, the user is informed by an electronic message. Thus, the user is invited to connect to the website to make the necessary changes to restart the procedure.

Additional modules are also necessary for the operation of the system according to the invention. Thus, an administration module makes it possible to connect to the other modules described above, in order to modify, comment, validate or delete any data in the other modules of the website. This administration module also makes it possible to block any purchase / sale procedure at any stage of any module.

The administration information is stored in the database 310.

An internal messaging module of the portal also makes it possible to send messages between the different users and possibly manages the display of the messages on the descriptive form concerning an advertisement.

A general utility module makes it possible to check the interconnection of the modules with each other, their validities or the correct transcription of the information in the database 310.

Finally, a search module allows to search for objects, information, transactions, data in the different modules. A help module manages the display of help on the website, its updating and its modifications. This help module can only be administered by the service provider.

A content module manages the content added by the users and resulting for example from forums, blogs, personal pages, etc.

The previously described embodiments are given by way of example only.

Claims (6)

A method of purchasing and / or selling products between a buyer and a seller, on a website of a service provider, comprising the following steps: - application for registration on the website to access the purchase and / or sale of products service, including a validation step of the registration application to authorize access to the service; - Opening of an electronic purse to proceed to the payment of a sum of money in order to buy and / or sell a product including a step of validation of the payment of the sum of money to authorize the opening of the electronic purse; - Request for sale of a product to obtain the dissemination of a product description on the website including a verification step of the text of the description to authorize the dissemination of the product description; - payment of a sum of money to finalize the purchase of the product described on the website including a validation step to authorize the payment of the sum of money. Method according to claim 1 characterized in that the validation step comprises a step of verification and comparison of supporting documents provided by the buyer and the seller. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the validation step comprises a step of verifying the amount of money paid. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the text verification step comprises a step of comparing terms constituting the text of the description with predetermined terms. Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the validation step comprises a step of verifying the reception of the product. System comprising means adapted to perform one of the steps of the method according to one of claims 1 to 5.

Images