E-Commerce Law & Policy

Volume: 2 Issue: 4
(April 2000)

News

Civil liberties website the “Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain” (CACIB) was itself censored by its ISP earlier this month. / read more

A final set of documents spelling out the detail of the US-EU Safe Harbor data protection ‘agreement’ should be considered by the Article 31 Committee, which has the power to reject the agreement, at the end of May. / read more

The dispute over the Brussels Regulation, which challenges the country of origin principle for consumer contracts has intensified in the last month. / read more

Features

Alternative Dispute Resolution is certainly flavour of the month - or should we say - of the millennium as being the solution to the problems e-commerce brings. / read more

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill (RIP), introduced in the House of Commons on 9 February 2000, had its Second Reading on 6 March, the day after the Government published the consultation document, ‘Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce’. On 6 April The Standing Committee completed its scrutiny of RIP and published amendments. / read more

The ICANN Dispute Resolution Policy is a policy designed to resolve international domain name disputes involving “cybersquatting” or the unauthorised use of a trade mark or a name confusingly similar to a trademark in a domain name with a bad faith intent to profit without just cause.The policy covers .com, .org and .net names. (Country code Domain Name Registrars can adopt the Policy voluntarily, indeed the Island of Nuie (.NU has done so.) / read more

On 30 March 2000, only a few days before the defamation case Godfrey v Demon went to trial, the defendant, an ISP, apologised for not removing defamatory postings from its electronic bulletin board and agreed to pay Mr Laurence Godfrey, who had been libelled by the postings, approximately £15,000 in damages and £230,000 in legal costs. The settlement came nearly one year after a preliminary High Court ruling which Demon lost. As Demon did not appeal and has now agreed to settle, the ruling will be here to stay - at least for the foreseeable future. Although the settlement did not itself create new law, it has focused attention on the High court decision which established that UK ISPs can be liable for postings on the internet if they were aware of them and did not react. What will this mean for ISPs? What can ISPs do to limit their liability for defamation? What consequences will this ruling have on freedom of speech in cyberspace? / read more

In spite of the recent turbulence that Internet stocks have suffered on international stock markets, Internet trading and e-commerce are still destined to be the prime growth area for business over the next few years. More and more businesses internationally will be utilising the Internet and the World Wide Web. They will be used not just to advertise products or service but also to actively trade online. The potential attractions for doing so are obvious. The Internet opens the possibility for instant and easy access to world wide markets and potential customers. However, this factor also gives rise to the principal legal problems which all businesses who intend to actively trade online should be aware of. / read more

A UK Internet service provider has succeeded in preventing one of its US subscribers from sending unsolicited commercial email (‘UCE’) or ‘spam’. The precedent-setting settlement is likely to encourage anti-spam actions in the US and even in the UK. / read more

E-commerce is not restricted to ‘business-to-consumer’ transactions. The European Commission believes that out of a total of $9.2 billion of trade generated over the Internet, $8 billion is from ‘business-to-business’ transactions.

Because web suppliers and web customers may be located on different continents, in different jurisdictions or using different languages, it may be unrealistic to expect traditional judicial systems to regulate e-commerce transactions, even in cases where significant amounts of money are involved. / read more

A series of moves in the United States is putting pressure on the sale of pharmaceuticals online both internally and internationally. / read more

EU leaders meeting in Lisbon at the end of March agreed a ten year programme to make Europe the leading centre for e-commerce in the world. / read more

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About E-Commerce Law & Policy:

The monthly law journal giving authoratitive insights into all aspects of e-commerce law and regulations affecting online business, including domain names, Intellectual property, copyrights, online advertising, behavourial advertising, cloud computing, net neutrality, privacy, cybercrime, social media, trademarks, online sales, licensing and software / read more