Patent ID: 8190484

Claim:
An electronic commerce method comprising: an ordering-data receiving process of receiving, at a settlement agency terminal device from a purchaser terminal device, ordering data including price information representing a price of a target product to be purchased and personal information including payment card information and ID information which have previously been given to a purchaser for sales, via a network, the payment card information being communicated between the purchaser terminal device and the settlement agency terminal device, without being communicated to a seller terminal device, receiving, at the settlement agency terminal device from the purchaser terminal device, a first message digest corresponding to a first shorter form of the ordering data, the first message digest being created by the seller terminal device, and receiving, at the settlement agency terminal device from the purchaser terminal device, a second message digest corresponding to a second shorter form of the ordering data, the personal information, and the first message digest, the second message digest being created by the purchaser terminal device; a payment determination process of determining, at the settlement agency terminal device, whether to pay the price of the target product to the seller terminal device, based on the price information included in the received ordering data, and the payment card information and the ID information included in the received personal information; and a settlement-permission information sending process of sending, by the settlement agency terminal device, in response to the determining to pay the price of the target product for the purchaser, settlement permission information representing a determination to pay the price for the purchaser to the seller terminal device through the network.