Internet business law

The growing number on e-commerce and Internet based businesses, as well as regular companies extending their operations; the need grew to legally regulate these ventures, existing primarily in the virtual world of the Web. The main idea was to extend the local laws of business ventures and to implement these onto the net, but the Internet principle of the unlimited freedom encompassed the free enterprise idea, where virtually anyone could open a business online.

To standardize legally these virtual stores, the business concepts were transferred to the net and imposed on the venture owner. This created a loophole, where Internet business holder could open a legal, fully operational business and extend the operations to subcontractors who would then operate mini businesses on their own, without the entire legal burden. Some disclaimers and terms of service were still necessary, but the mini venture could be underway in mere minutes. This way the e-bay was born, the yahoo stores, the e-bay stores, the amazon.com supplier stores…

Contrary to other laws regarding the internet, the Internet business law was created almost instantly. Nevertheless, there is no additional or separate law book with the title “Internet business law”. All the applicable laws were either extended or added to the existing law books, only the regular business and commerce regulating laws were extended with the e-commerce and e-business parts.

The main problem with the business law for the Internet was the international nature of doing business. While it may appear that a business operates locally, it may be incorporated or have its official location in another country, perhaps even on a completely different continent. Trade regulations in foreign countries may be very dissimilar to local applicable laws, therefore every website running a business needs to have the definition of the applicable law, the terms of service, the privacy policy and the jurisdiction clearly defined and on public display.

How complicated the international facet of doing business on the Internet can become, when viewed from a legal angle, explain the many courses and seminars held by Internet behemoths like Google and Yahoo for lawyers and interested individuals looking to understand all the implications. Selling an item from Bangladesh in Turkmenistan to an American customer may have all kind of legal humbug attached to it, therefore people are advised to shop with reputable businesses, which lead to the rating and comment system established by amazon.com, e-bay and other huge internet operators providing not only own merchandise but sub-businesses offering services and products of their own. Although legislation has tried to harness Internet fraud, such self-imposed rating systems seem to have a much larger impact on the final buying decision.