Internet ecommerce law

Sometimes is the Internet craze really funny. An enthusiast interested in E-commerce trying to find relevant information on how it works, what is needed to start an e-business and furthermore, how is this venture opportunity regulated by the legislative body will encounter dozens of know-it-all lawyers promising more than just Promised Land, but even up to successful and fruitful business experiences.
Internet E-commerce law is getting more complicated by each passing day. Just weeks ago New York’s legislative body has passed a law they tentatively called “the Amazon law” which should force Amazon.com to collect sales tax from any purchase by a buyer located in the New York State area. Most of the Amazon.com selling outlets and the company itself are not residents of New York State and were not liable to collect local state taxes for out of state purchases. The new, very ambiguous law was created to extort additional tax money from Amazon (there is no other venture which would apply to the provisions of this law) and of course Amazon did sue the State of New York, the decision is pending and will take a while. Now if you are an E-commerce seller affiliated with Amazon, from anywhere in the world (Amazon is a worldwide company) and you refuse to collect money for New York, since that you have to pay your own taxes and collect your Country’s imposed burdens, you may be charged with tax evasion in New York and arrested if you go to visit the Big Apple as a tourist.
Just like in this case, for Internet E-commerce law, the biggest issue is jurisdiction. A worldwide outlet, which Amazon is, has affiliates and branch offices throughout the world. But Papa Giorgio’s Pasta in Italy has only one Internet store and is a worldwide business just the same.
There is no law which can encompass every single case that is possible to happen over the Internet. Before the Internet, international cases were seldom happening. Import and Export was clearly regulated, in the purchase contract was the jurisdiction defined, all done. But today, with millions of businesses on the Internet actively trading cross-border, international litigation is booming just in the same proportion. The legislature is trying to follow up with regulations and adjustments, in order to make the whole mess easier, but what they’ve accomplished is actually the opposite. The whole Internet law, of which E-commerce is a very big chunk, is a worldwide mess. Instead of simplifying the process, like it was back in the days of import-export businesses and equalize the procedure, the legislative body, just because of the prospective tax income, is mudding the waters.