Legal Guides for Ecommerce

There's a lot to consider when starting a retail business: marketing, staffing, accounting. Can you take a salary and still keep the lights on? What will happen if your suppliers suddenly raise their prices? Will your website ever stop crashing?

Getting to grips with the legal implications of running an ecommerce store might be pretty far down on your list of priorities. But few things could be more important. Customers and suppliers will come and go. Blips on the balance sheet are inevitable. Ending up in court, however, can easily sink a small business.

In market economies, the contract is sacred. And an ecommerce store hopes to enter into as many contracts as possible. Every time you make a sale, after all, you take on contractual obligations. The better your understanding of your position under the law, the more control you can exercise over the terms of these obligations. Similarly, the less you understand about your legal position, the more likely you are to encounter problems.

However, it isn't only buying and selling that you have to worry about. While the Internet is well-established as a medium of exchange, privacy law is still playing catch-up. The passing of increasingly strict data protection laws has meant a huge amount of extra work for businesses. And if you think that's an exaggeration, it might be because you haven't done what's required.

This book is an exploration of the legal issues that every ecommerce store will have to deal with. It will give you an edge over any of your competitors who don't understand their legal obligations.

This book is not legal advice, and it isn't designed to get you out of legal trouble. It's not filled with legal theory or musings on the development of case law. Think of it as a guidebook, filled with practical information.

This book will help you understand what you need to do, and how to do it. You're probably too busy running or preparing your business to worry about much more than that.