eBusiness: Legislation

Strictly, terms of trade must comply with legislation in each country in which you do business, though this may be difficult since there are few standards internationally, especially in consumer protection. The best protection is to make your terms of trade fair and clear – the “golden rule” is to be transparent. For example:

• Give your physical address
• Make it easy for people to do business with you
• Show the full price of items, including VAT and delivery costs if any
• Give a contact point where people can complain.

If you collect information from users of your web-site, the EU Data Protection Directive says that personal information must be:

• Obtained fairly and lawfully
• Used only for the original specified purpose
• Adequate, relevant and not excessive to purpose
• Accurate and up-to-date
• Accessible to the subject of the information
• Kept secure and destroyed after its purpose is completed.

Other eBusiness topics:

• Getting started
• Why have a web-site?
• Setting up a web-site
• On-line marketing & sales
• Security
• Legislation
• Domain names
• Other issues.