Exploitation of information technology has caused great legal
concern in online commerce”. To what extent is this statement
true?
Electronic commerce, or e-Commerce, is a revolutionary platform for markets,
business firms and customer behaviour not found in the physical world. Since
1994 e-Commerce has developed, bringing enormous change in commerce,
becoming the fastest growing form of trade.
As a technology innovation, e-Commerce is driven by technology itself. Without
it, e-Commerce would be virtually non-existent. Another influencing part is the
society, on which the online businesses have consequences.
There are several categories of e-Commerce and can be classified in different
ways, depending of the market relationship nature.
In Business-to-Business (B2B) commerce businesses focus on selling their
services or goods between them.
Business-to-Customer (B2C) e-Commerce aims to get businesses through
to individual consumers.
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) is commerce between individual
consumers.
Businesses over the Internet are continually affected by various applications,
such as e-banking, electronic payment system, shipping industry, electronic
media, electronic auctions, social networking, teleconferences and instant
messaging and many others.
Technology in e-commerce
As its name suggests, electronic commerce is based on technology, business
concepts and society, which is the reason for e-commerce related legal concern.
The following part of the report will focus on the technology infrastructure with
its advantages and disadvantages of ICT and how it is exploited.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) changed human life in both
good and bad ways. Businesses also changed and developed by making use of the
ICT, which has its advantages and disadvantages.
On one hand, bringing technology into businesses facilitated:
Globalization, bringing down barriers of language and geographic
boundaries;
Communication around the world quicker, cheaper and efficient.
Costs, as ICT took over personnel and nowadays machines complete jobs.
Availability; businesses are open twenty four hours, seven days a week.
Electronic storage, which protects company’s records, vital to business
integrity.
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, Remote access; freedom to access the company’s computers and work
from anywhere.
Universal standards, shared by all nations around the world.
Information density; it has increased the amount and quality of
information available.
Personalization; merchants can target their marketing messages to
specific individuals
Customization; changing the delivered product or service based on the
consumer’s preference or behaviour.
On the other, ICT has its downsides, including:
Implementation expenses; hardware and software needed for any online
business must be purchased and hold a licence.
Maintaining expenses; information technology systems must be maintain
and require skilled technicians to troubleshoot and repair it.
Training employee is another cost related disadvantage, as individuals
within a business unfamiliar with latest technology must be instructed
how to make effective use of the system.
Job elimination; once the ICT is implemented, businesses save time on
daily tasks completion, compared with human employee.
Security and privacy, the most faced problems over the Internet.
List linking, a form of harassment when a person’s email address is used
to subscribed to a large number of mailing list, generating hundreds of
emails every day.
Viruses and malicious codes.
Having a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of ICT when used in
businesses it can be concluded that a good relationship can be build between
businesses or customers by the use of the technology. It facilitates the
communication and information exchange via email, online conferencing,
websites or social networking.
Most companies have a website to market their services or goods, providing
detailed information. The Internet helps companies to save time and money
while work is completed online, as proven by researches that companies who
make use of the Internet develop faster than others. On the other hand, ICT can
breakdown a business when employees use the company computer for personal
or suspicious purposes. Also, using computer for a long period of time affects
user’s health.
Technology also raises concerns. The Internet not only holds the promise of a
global market place, offering access to people, businesses, services or goods
world wide, it also represents a medium for criminal actions, remotely and
anonymously.
2
, This type of crime is referred to as Cybercrime, which “is becoming a significant
problem for both organizations and consumers. DDoS attacks, Trojans, phishing,
data theft, identity theft, credit card fraud and spyware.” (Laudon and Traver) 1
More and more criminals are exploiting what the new technology offers to
commit different crimes.
According to Interpol’s website, “we are now seeing an emerging trend with
traditional organized crime syndicated and criminally minded technology
professionals working together and pooling their resources and expertise” in
committing crime. 2
Law implications
E-commerce is also subject to laws, bringing up issues over privacy, intellectual
property, copyright, content regulation, collection of information, cyberpiracy
and many more and online businesses poses risk exposure to cybercrime.
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 aims to encourage the
use of e-commerce across Europe and offer consumers’ confidence by clarifying
the rights and obligations of businesses and consumers. If a service provider fails
to provide information required by the directive, its contract with the consumer
may be invalid and it may be in breach of member state retail law. But the
Directive and Regulations only outlines the law that applies in the event of a
dispute, and not conditions by which companies can sue or be sued. Also, there
are exclusions from the Regulations, such as taxation; betting, gaming or
lotteries; data protection; the activities of a public notary; the representation of a
client and defense of his or her interests before courts; or cartel laws. 3
The Regulations only apply in relation to Acts of Parliament passed before the
date on which the E-Commerce Regulations were made. For legislation that post-
dates the E-Commerce Regulations, the Directive needs to be applied on a case-
by-case basis. Consequently, some Acts, like the Equality Act 2010, contain
relevant provisions of the E-commerce Regulations. Most recently
supplementary provisions have been applied in the Electronic Commerce
Directive (People for Exploitation) Regulations 2013.
2INTERPOL, n.d. Cybercrime. [Online] Available at:
http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime [Accessed 11
December 2013].
3Pinsent Masons, 2013. The UK's E-Commerce Regulations. [Online] Available at:
http://www.out-law.com/page-431 [Accessed 6 January 2014].
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