Electronıc Trade Transactıons in the Gold Sector and Its Fıqh Evaluatıon

Abstract

Trade reflects the relations of individuals in social life and provides information about the development processes of society. According to the commercial life, information is obtained about the socio-economic, socio-cultural structure of that society and, accordingly, the legal developments. Therefore, it is necessary to review the known and applied issues related to commercial law. Electronic commerce stands out as an entirely important example in this perspective. Electronic commerce or buying and selling transactions conducted via the internet, is one of the indispensable forms of shopping in the modern era. Briefly, e-commerce is actively used in the supply of many products that individuals need in parallel with the widespread usage of the internet. In the electronic environment, securities in the form of investment vehicles and jewellery are offered for sale in addition to electronic items, clothing, food, and cleaning products to be used in daily life. E-commerce has a very different structure compared to face-to-face shopping, such as the meeting of the shopping parties in the virtual environment and the delivery of the subject and price of the contract to the parties after a certain period of time. In this context, the parties can recognize the product subject to the contract within the framework of the information declared by the seller. Thus, commercial law has determined rules suitable for the structure of shopping carried out in electronic environments. When compared to other movable and immovable goods, the subject of gold, which is precious in essence, to e-commerce occurs at a later time. The fact that e-commerce has become a more functional and reliable structure naturally favors the sale of gold through this channel. Thus, Muslims are concerned about issues resulting from both the structure of e-commerce and the legal nature of gold. At the beginning of these problems, the legal nature of gold is money and it is necessary to exchange it within the framework of the spending contract. This opinion of the majority of the classical period jurists and the majority of contemporary Islamic jurists was adopted in the study and evaluations were made accordingly. According to this opinion, it is considered problematic to adhere to the rules of the consumption contract in gold transactions in the electronic environment. Within the framework of this basic starting point and different views on details, our research aimed to evaluate the electronic commerce of the gold sector. Jewellers, or the gold industry more generally, seek to sell in a virtual environment as well as in person. They not only sell through their own social media accounts and websites but also through intermediary platforms where a large number of products are offered for sale at the same time, known as marketplaces. Since the asset subject to sale is gold, it is seen that there are different applications within its internal structure. It is the subject of this study whether the terms of the contract of consumption are fulfilled within the context of these various applications. Additionally, another important issue in fiqh evaluations is the methods used in the payments made by the customer to the gold seller company and the way the company delivers the gold products subject to sale to the customer. All these details have been declared in our research. Gold is now used as a financial instrument in the over-the-counter, money, and capital markets. Producers (mines, refineries, mints and workshops), intermediaries (wholesalers and handbags) and jewellers/exchangers who sell gold retail in the over-the-counter markets are all included in the term “gold sector” used in the title of our study. In this sense, the transactions of establishments that sell gold through electronic commerce will be included in the study, taking into account the production stages of gold and the exchanges realized at these stages. Furthermore, gold trades in money and capital markets will not be considered directly as electronic gold trade. However, the Jeweller’s Gold Valuation System (KAD-SIS), which is one of the joint transactions of over-the-counter and financial market aspects, has been particularly examined. The study’s sources are divided into two sections, one dealing with the system’s functioning and the other with fiqh evaluation. Information about the operation was obtained from the e-commerce web pages of the sector representatives and the face-to-face interviews. In the fiqh sense, different sects have been utilized rather than a sectarian system. The sources associated with the operation were compared among themselves and the information obtained was provided. Thus, it is aimed to reveal fiqh evaluations accurately. This approach aims to guide both business representatives and taxpayers who have religious sensitivities and decide to buy gold through e-commerce. Therefore, the permissible and illegal forms of gold exchanges made with modern tools such as e-commerce and KAD-SIS were presented to the researchers.