What does the written form stipulated in Article 469 of the Civil Code mean?

The parties may conclude a contract in writing, orally or in other forms.

Written form refers to contracts, letters, telegrams, telexes, faxes and other forms that can tangibly express the contents contained.

A data message that can tangibly express its content through electronic data interchange, e-mail, etc. , and can be retrieved at any time, are considered in writing.

Contract is the most commonly used and common legal document in daily life. With the advent of the digital age, the understanding of "written contract" has become more abundant. Taking data message as the way to conclude a contract is the highlight of this revision of the Civil Code. According to the third paragraph of this article, in fact, WeChat chat records, emails, mobile phone messages, etc. Can be the way to form a contract.

As an extension, the proposal should be read together with the second paragraph of Article 49 1 of the Civil Code. Paragraph 2 of Article 49 1 of the Civil Code: "If the information of goods or services released by one party through information networks such as the Internet meets the conditions of offer, the contract is established when the other party successfully selects the goods or services and submits the order, unless otherwise agreed by the parties". The above are the rules for the establishment of online shopping contracts.