Pest Analysis of Amazon.Co.Uk Essay Example

Contract Terms Act 1977, The Unfair Terms and Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, The Consumer Protection Act 1987 and so on. In addition, they must ensure that they comply with an array of regulations governing the actual on-line trading process.These are mainly as follows: •The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 as amended by the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) (Amendment) Regulations 2005 – commonly known as “Distance Selling Regulations” •The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 (“E-commerce Regulations”) •The Electronic Signatures Regulations 2002 This article will focus on the E-commerce Regulations and explain some of its main requirements that businesses trading on-line should meet.The article is not intended to be a comprehensive guidance, in respect of which, please refer to the DTI. It serves only to highlight some of the very basic requirements governing businesses trading on-line. The E-commerce Regulations (“the Regulations”) The Regulations were brought into force in the UK in August 2002 as a direct result of the UK government implementing the EU E-Commerce Directive.

The Regulations govern the provision of ‘information society service’, which is defined as “any service normally provided for remuneration at a distance, by means of electronic equipment for the processing (including digital compression) and storage of data, at the individual request of a recipient of the service”. Thus, the Regulations cover not only on-line selling and advertising services but apply to services carried out by way of email and SMS. It also covers the services of transmitting or storing electronic content or providing access to a telecommunications network.The Regulations lay down, among other rules, the applicable law, the requirements for minimum information that commercial websites and other providers of ‘information

society service’ must provide to the customers, additional information to be provided when businesses contract on-line as well as exemptions for mere conduit, caching and hosting.

Applicable law The Regulations apply a ‘country of origin’ rule. Put simply, it means that a UK based business needs only to comply with UK laws irrespective of where their customers are based.However, this rule is subject to a number of exceptions. Notably, the rule does not apply to some consumer contracts. These consumer contracts will be governed by the rules contained in ‘Brussels Regulation’ and ‘Rome Convention’ which are beyond the scope of this article. As the extent to which the consumer contracts exception would apply is still not very clear; businesses wishing to sell on-line to consumers of other EU countries are recommended by DTI to comply with that consumers’ country’s laws.

Nevertheless, this rule may lead to an UK based business having advantages over their EU counterparts when selling on-line to businesses of the other EU country, for example, to businesses based in German where they are subject to more stringent laws regulating on-line trading and marketing. Information that must be provided Regulation 6 prescribes that all business websites whether or not trading on-line must list the following general information:- •Business name; •Business address which must be a geographic address, i. e. street number etc.In other words a PO Box address is not likely to be sufficient; but a registered office address would; •Other contact details such as email address and phone number; •Its registration number and registered office address if a company; •[Its place of registration if a company or a LLP.

Please note this is

a requirement under new regulations which were brought into force on the 1st January 2007 ] •VAT number if the business is VAT registered; •Details of any trade and professional body or scheme with which the business is registered and the registration number if applicable.The required information does not need to be on every page of the website; however, it must be ‘easily, directly and permanently accessible’. It is therefore advisable for the website to display the information on the ‘About Us’ or ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Disclaimer and Legal Information’ page. In addition, full prices must be listed on the website and the prices must be clear and indicate whether or not they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs. The above mentioned information must also be included in any commercial communication that carried out by way of email or SMS text message or interactive TV.