Patent ID: 8380625

Claim:
A method for defining and enforcing payment constraint rules in an electronic commerce (e-commerce) system implemented by at least one processor, the method comprising: in response to a determination by said e-commerce system that an order item has been placed in a shopping cart, that said order item has been associated with one or more payment constraint rules, and that one or more pre-conditions corresponding to said one or more payment constraint rules has been satisfied, implementing said one or more payment constraint rules with said e-commerce system, wherein said payment constraints rule is a relationship object that defines a dependency relationship between a payment method and a particular order item; and in response to a determination by said e-commerce system that one or more post-conditions corresponding to said one or more payment constraint rules has been satisfied, submitting with said e-commerce system a purchasing order from said shopping cart that includes said order item, wherein said order item is constrained by said one or more payment constraint rules.