by Desislava Stankova | Sep 22, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, E-Commerce, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
When you hear someone mentioning privacy and data protection, you might think it affects you only when your privacy is at stake. However, as soon as you start your business’ online presence and even more when you actively start doing business online (as well as offline), certain obligations to protect individuals’ privacy start to exist for you. Many people are not aware that the EU has stricter privacy and data protection rules compared to the USA for example – that is to say that here, in good old Europe, we take privacy very seriously. PRIVACY POLICY, WHY? Here are several tips as to why you need to implement a Privacy Policy on your website: You are required by law to inform users about certain aspects of processing personal data; You are required by some of your providers to have a Privacy Policy (e.g. when you use Google Analytics, PayPal, etc.); You need a way to obtain users’ consent about the personal data processing you do; It makes you (look) more transparent and honest to customers/business partners, i.e. it creates trust. PRIVACY POLICY GENERAL TIPS Keep it simple Do not use too sophisticated legal language – all that legal mumbo-jumbo sounds great for lawyers, but everyone else finds it really hard to read and understand. And a well-kept secret is that even lawyers are often bored and confused by excessive legal terminology. Be specific and include details (not to the extreme) At the same time you need to include specific details about the way you process personal data, the types of data you process, etc. Including a privacy policy that...
by Desislava Stankova | Jun 25, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
You are an EU company selling services online (information society services) or you are planning to establish an entity somewhere in the EU and to sell to EU clients. Not a problem, but you just need to be aware of a list of items that the company must cover in order to comply with all regulations for a EU business selling services online. The applicable acts to be taken into account would be different depending on the specific country you operate but regardless of the country, they all implement the EU’s Electronic Commerce Directive 2000 and others applicable into local law and practically every commercial website would be covered by it. The following article covers Business to Business (B2B) transactions, i.e. selling to business clients online. For companies selling to individual consumers (natural persons), additional requirements and specific consumer protection rules apply that will be included in my next post. MINIMUM INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED: You are bound by law to provide at least the following information to your potential clients: the name of the service provider on the site.; the geographic address of the company; the details of the company including email address; details of a register, including any registration number; if the company is a member of a trade or similar register available to the public, confirmation of that; the particulars of the relevant supervisory authority if the services are subject to an authorisation scheme; details of any professional body or similar institution with which the company is registered, their professional title and the Member State where that title has been granted; a VAT number – even...
by Desislava Stankova | Apr 21, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events
It has not been long since you started your blog, but it turns out to be so valued by your readers that they gracefully start using significant parts of your content on their own blogs, corporate websites and other materials. As flattering as it is, the appreciation of your work, you probably prefer to be asked for permission by others who enjoy using your work, and certainly the law gives you that right. Here are several useful strategies to protect your intellectual property online. Protect Now or Cry Later It is always better to act before your intellectual property is infringed, so that once it happens, you are better prepared to fight back and your protection is stronger than your infringer is prepared. Keep in mind that in case of a copyright dispute, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you are the author of the disputed content (or it was created for you) and the date when you created and published it. Secure Your Contracts If possible, sign written contracts with anyone who helps you create and maintain your blog – e.g. web designers, image and article contributors, marketing experts who help you make it popular, everyone. This way you will have written evidence about your rights to use whatever is posted on your blog. Special attention should be paid to ensure you have the rights to your own website if you pay someone else to develop it. To read the full article, check Chicoverdose where it was originally...
by Desislava Stankova | Apr 14, 2015 | Blogging, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events
Congratulations – you have a blog now and you are ready to start writing, creating, sharing and networking! Yet, all the fun may be intertwined with the risk of legal liability – think take down letters, complaints and infringement claims. Not a funny side of blogging, I know. Let’s look at blogging from several legal perspectives: Part One will focus on what bloggers should do or avoid doing in order to stay away from legal liability when using materials created by others; Part Two will explore the various ways to protect your creative works and rights when blogging; And in Part Three, we will go into further aspects a blogger may encounter legal liability or just mere communication problems, e.g. defamation, illegal processing of personal data, using third party blog tools, etc. Copyright means “I can copy it”, right? Actually, copyright means that once you are the original author or copyright holder of a creative work that is fixed in a tangible medium (e.g. paper, online, etc.), you have the exclusive right to use it (sell, make copies, publish, etc.), and to prevent others from using it without your permission. Plus, in most cases, you can demand payment for use. Unlike trademarks and patents, copyright is granted the moment the work is created and fixed. For example, if the blogger only thought about the blog post in their mind, this obviously would not be enough for copyright protection, but once the article is written in a computer file or posted online, as long as it is original and creative, it becomes a work protected by copyright, without the need...
by Rangel Hristov | Apr 8, 2015 | Accounting and Taxation, E-Commerce, News and Events
In case your company has converted a huge amount of EU-people to paying customers for your IT and online products and services, we truthfully wish you to retain them and continue growing. Yet, you should consider that commencing January 01, 2015 a new European VAT regulation is effective for all companies providing so called “electronically supplied services” to citizens or residents of the EU member states, regretfully regardless of the number of customers. List of Applicable Services To all of you who will ask what stays behind “electronically supplied services” and whether my company is a qualified provider: if you find your company’s business in the list of services below, start getting seriously interested: Website hosting and webpage hosting; Automated, online and distance maintenance of programmes; Remote system administration; Online data warehousing where specific data is stored and retained automatically; Online supply of on-demand disc space; Accessing or downloading software (including procurement/accountancy programmes and anti-virus software) plus updates; Software to block banner adverts showing otherwise known as Bannerblockers; Download drivers, such as software that interfaces computers with peripheral equipment (such as printers); Online automated installation of filters on websites; Online automated installation of firewalls; Accessing or downloading desktop themes; Accessing or downloading photographic or pictorial images or screensavers; Digitized content of books and other electronic publications; Subscription to online newspapers and journals; Weblogs and website statistics; Online news, traffic information and weather reports; Online information generated automatically by software from specific data input by the customer, such as legal and financial data (in particular such data as continually updated stock market data in real time); The provision of advertising...
by Desislava Stankova | Mar 11, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
Internet offers endless business opportunities and amazing flexibility, yet laws do extend not only to the good old offline ventures, but to e-businesses too and like it or not, they should be obeyed. The applicable regulations however tend to be neglected sometimes leading to legal vulnerability of the respective business, disputes or simply customer dissatisfaction. Some of the most common mistakes related to legal compliance of online businesses that I have seen in my practice include: The Copy/Paste Sin Terms and Conditions or Privacy Policy have been copied from the internet and are not fully applicable to the case. In many situations they are not even followed by the business itself. Forgetting the Change Changes in operations and customer service have not been reflected with a respective modification in the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy or other legal documents. Even changes in the applicable laws are not reflected by the Terms. It`s all about the Contract No written contracts have been concluded with the website developer, content providers, logo designers, etc. to clearly set the intellectual property rights to these works. In case of intellectual property dispute you need to be able to prove two basic things about the disputed work – who created it (i.e. you or someone hired by you) or when was it created (i.e. before the other party is claiming they created it). To read the full article, check Chicoverdose where it was originally...
