by Desislava Stankova | Feb 10, 2015 | Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
So, you want to start an online business? It is easy, isn’t it – you get a domain, buy a hosting, setup a web site and, voila, you are cashing in 24/7. Right? Wrooong! You forgot the lawyers. There are tons of them and they can make your life hell. If you don’t want this to happen, you need to figure out some crucial stuff in the “Big L”-area. Spell it with me: L-E-G-A-L-S-T-U-F-F. E-commerce offers endless opportunities with the unlimited number of potential worldwide customers, the ease of purchasing a product from each location, the optimization of business processes. However anyone engaged in it should keep in mind that laws and rules exist online as much as they do offline. Knowing the legal aspect of e-commerce turns out to be one of the key factors about online business success. Since it is a wide topic and a professional legal advice is needed in each particular case, this post will only sketch the applicable legal requirements. B2B online relations differ from B2C ones, mainly in the more rigorous standard to ensure safety and consumer protection in B2C web businesses, but in order to summarize, these are the main legal aspects of e-commerce, particularly in the EU. Light Bulb One: Protect Your Most Precious Asset One of the very first steps to be taken is the domain name registration and its protection. It is important due to the fact that the domain name contract, which is basically a service agreement, protects the domain name in the relation between the parties to this agreement, but it could not automatically offer protection...
by Desislava Stankova | Jan 31, 2015 | E-Commerce, News and Events, Privacy and Data Protection
More than thirty years after the famous Monty Python sketch, spam has now become a worldwide implicating problem that grows exponentially every year. Most often defined as an “unsolicited commercial e-mail” or “unsolicited bulk e-mail”, spam messages are estimated to be between 45% and 70% of all incoming e-mails. Damages from spamming include communication service disruption, decrease in productivity (the average employee productivity loss per year due to spam is approximately 1200 minutes), security breaches, increased costs for anti spam techniques and activities, reputation damages, etc. Since it is now undoubted that spam seriously interfere with the business operations of companies (ISPs and end users), as well it is more than a nuisance for the regular individual internet user, a proactive solution to the problem should be developed. Different anti spam techniques have been discussed, including technical measures, legal and informal measures such as self regulation. The results are quite clear – no single type of measure is capable of completely eradicating the spam trouble, so using a multilateral approach, which includes all of the abovementioned measures at the same time, should be adopted. Technological measures As already mentioned, multiple direct and indirect companies` and individual users` losses are attributable to spam and a versatile approach should be found. Unsolicited messages consume a substantial amount of traffic and bandwidth capacity, storage, time and money, and the technological means to combat them should be the first line of defense. Such measures mainly include filtering out and blocking techniques, whose main types and features will be presented. Filtering in this paper is used as s generic term that includes all kind...
by Desislava Stankova | Jan 26, 2015 | E-Commerce, Liability and the Internet
The concept of electronic signature (electronic signature is defined by the e-signature Directive in art. 1 as “data in electronic form which are attached to or logically associated with other electronic data and which serve as a method of authentication”) has been introduced in order to establish legal and market security of the internet communications and commercial relations and specific liability has been linked to the entities offering certification services. The e-signature Directive also contains the concept of qualified electronic signature which is an advanced e-signature based on qualified certificate issued by a Certification Service Provider (an entity or a legal or natural person who issues certificates or provides other services related to electronic signatures) who fulfills the requirements of Annex II of the Directive. The legal effects of using a qualified electronic signature are equal to and linked to the legal consequences of a paper-based document signed with a handwritten signature and can be used as an evidence in court proceedings. The requirements as to the signature (e.g. the usage of Secure Signature Creation Device – SSCD) and to the Certification Service Providers (CSP) are expected to create trust and reliability in the electronic communication and to promote further market and social relations. However, the specific liability regime regarding CSPs in fact proves to actually shift away from the idea of reliability and ease. Qualified signature – challenging CSP`s liability According to the Directive the CSP is liable: for the accuracy and completeness of the data in the qualified certificate; for the identity of the signatory of signature-creation data corresponding to the signature-verification data given or identified in...
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by Desislava Stankova | Jan 25, 2015 | E-Commerce, Social Media Law
You have seen it many times – blogs or social media posts that contain word-of-a-mouth advertisements regarding weight loss supplements, or an exceptional new book, or any other product mentioned by the reviewer. These reviews often come with a number of “before” and “after” pictures and satisfied customers` testimonials. Needless to say, in a significant number of cases, the truth about the product result is far from what is depicted in the “before” and “after” pictures and the testimonials are not always even real, which seriously undermines our trust in the online reviews we read. 2009 FTC Guidelines What changed after December 1, 2009 is that the US Federal Trade Commission`s (FTC) Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising came into effect. Having a husband active in blogging and social media advertising and being a consumer at the same time, I thought I might have double personal interest to further research the essence of the guidelines and how can they affect the trust in online advertising, not only in US, but rather internationally, with internet being an international phenomenon. The 2009 Guidelines have introduced two main changes that can affect e-commerce in comparison to the previous Guidelines that were last updated in 1980. On one hand endorsements and testimonials or any representation as to products or services must be substantiated. The Guidelines define endorsement as “…any advertising message … that consumers are likely to believe reflects the opinions, beliefs, findings, or experiences of a party other than the sponsoring advertiser”. On the other hand any “material connection” between the online marketer and the product/service being advertised...
