Is your website illegal?

NEWS UK businesses who have failed to act on new ecommerce regulations which come into effect today could find themselves open to prosecution unless they take urgent steps to change their online operations. The regulations became legally binding today (21 August) and set strict rules for UK businesses which advertise or sell goods via a website, mobile phone or through email. Under the new law, a website must (among other things):
* Acknowledge receipt of an order electronically and without undue delay
* Allow simple means which allow the customer to correct errors prior to placing the order (any site offering single click ordering processes may fall foul of this regulation)
* Highlight the languages offered for inclusion in the contract
* Explain the different technical steps required to conclude the contract
* Confirm whether the contract will be filed and how it will be accessible But there is evidence to suggest that many businesses are unprepared for the new regulations, with some blaming the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for failing to publicise the changes properly. Andrew Rigby, head of technology and ecommerce in the City office of Addleshaw Booth & Co, said: "Businesses with an online presence or who provide any form of online service have not been sufficiently briefed and will urgently need to reconsider how they operate their websites to ensure they are compliant. If they don't, they are likely to face action by the enforcement authorities who will be able to apply to the courts for orders to stop infringing websites from being non-compliant." A spokesman for the DTI said: "Over the last 18 months we have carried out two extensive consultations on the approach to and implementation of the new ecommerce regulations. We received many detailed responses that helped us address concerns and shape the current regulations. "We have also produced guidance particularly aimed at small and online businesses," he added. "The guidance was available from us as soon as the regulations were laid in Parliament and also available via our updated website." The DTI believes the regulations will encourage greater use of ecommerce by breaking down barriers across Europe and boosting consumer confidence. Meanwhile, the new regulations have also come under fire for failing to address the thorny issue of unsolicited email. Anti-spam specialist Brightmail claims the UK government has failed to protect consumers from the mass of spam flooding inboxes every day. It wanted the Ecommerce Regulations to protect email users from daily attacks of 'get-rich-quick' scams and pornography. However the regulations simply state that the government "believes that existing industry self-regulation and codes of conduct already provide recipients of unsolicited commercial communication... with effective protection." Francois Lavaste, Brightmail's European VP, said: "We need legislation... to clearly lay out acceptable and unacceptable methods of operation. Only legislation backed up by a technology solution will defeat spam, as most spammers operate outside of the law." He added: "The government has left the industry to regulate itself and mandated service providers to clearly label their commercial email. Neither of these measures offer any protection from spam to the email user." The issue of unsolicited mail is due to be dealt with under the Communications Data Protection Directive, which is scheduled to hit the statute books in October 2003. For more information, see http://www.dti.gov.uk/cii/ecommerce/europeanpolicy/ecommerce_directive.shtml