Abstract: “Born global” companies are those companies that pursue an economic activity on an international level starting from the moment or immediately following the moment they are incorporated and organize themselves from a management, structural and legal standpoint to efficiently serve an international market. The activity of these types of companies entails a series of particular difficulties and differences compared to companies that have been set up on a classical framework and become international further on. The paper takes up the discussion of issues of legal difficulty concerning the law applicable to “born global” companies that mainly operate online, with a particular view to the governing law, the legal initiatives taken up by the European Union in this regard and possible legal and economic implications deriving from extant economic company models.

Keywords: “born global” companies, electronic commerce, international business, multinational companies, conflict of laws, IT law.