Blog posts: internet law

Consumer contracts regulations: sample clauses
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Fri, 06/06/2014 - 11:10

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 are coming into force next week. They include a detailed list of information that a trader must provide to a consumer in situations where the Regulations apply. Should you use the model instructions on cancellation to help you comply with this requirement, or should you draft special legal clauses for your contracts?
The list of information that must be supplied is set out in Schedule 2, and includes the following items:
Legal area:
internet law
New distance selling laws: 8 key compliance points
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Tue, 03/06/2014 - 06:35

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply special rules to B2C distance contracts entered into via a website, as well as certain other contracts (not discussed here).

The Regulations, effective on 13 June 2014, replace the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. See:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/contents/made
Legal area:
internet law
Online advice: worth the risks?
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Tue, 25/03/2014 - 13:12

Whether you are purchasing legal forms and templates, seeking a medical diagnosis, getting insider information when choosing a school or university, or soliciting the opinions of product aficionados on a prospective purchase, there are many ways to get guidance and advice online - but what are the risks for those providing this guidance and advice?

Legal area:
internet law
Cancellation conundrums: distance sales of goods and services
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Sun, 03/03/2013 - 11:18

The Distance Selling Regulations contain an intricate set of rules concerning the cancellation, by consumers, of distance contracts for the supply of goods. A different set of rules concerns the cancellation of distance contracts for the supply of services. But nowhere in the Regulations is there any guidance on the cancellation of distance contracts for the supply of both goods and services.
Legal area:
consumer law
internet law
Customer testimonials and the law
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Sun, 27/01/2013 - 10:11

Testimonials are a good way to reassure potential customers that your business is genuine, and your products or services are well-regarded by existing customers. There are however a couple of legal issues you should bear in mind if you're thinking of collating and publishing testimonials on your website: first, don't make them up; and second, get consent to publish. In this post, I take a quick look at these issues and suggest some text for gaining formal consent.
Legal area:
internet law
Web partnership contracts involving content-based promotion
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Tue, 22/01/2013 - 14:28

Partnerships are an important part of many website marketing strategies, particularly content-based partnerships. Through such partnerships, a website operator can access the anonymous traffic, registered users and marketing lists of others. Just as important, an operator can gain access to original and relevant content for his or her own audience.

Legal area:
internet law
marketing law
Website design, contracts and designer credits
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Wed, 02/01/2013 - 13:54

Many web designers include credits ("Designed by XYZ") as a matter of course on the websites that they create. Many web design contracts do not, however, cover the issue of credits. Whilst in some cases contractual clauses relating to credits may be overkill, in other cases they can be very useful indeed. This post examines the main issues: rights of paternity and contractual rights to include, remove and edit credits.
Legal area:
internet law
Troll hunting: forum abuse and the law
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Thu, 26/07/2012 - 13:51

A troll is defined in the Urban Dictionary as "one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument". The etymology seems to be disputed. My preferred explanation is that the usage comes - via the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban - from fishing, where trolling is the practice of trailing a baited line behind a moving boat, as in "trolling for mackerel".
Legal area:
criminal law
defamation law
internet law
Writing an SEO contract
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Thu, 19/07/2012 - 14:41

Success or failure in the search engine results pages (SERPs) can make or break a business. With serious money at stake, all SEO consultants and agencies need to be conscious of the legal risks that their work entails. One of the most important ways of managing those risks is through the use of a good contract. In this post, I look at those matters which are particular to SEO contracts.
Legal area:
internet law
marketing law
Cookies, consents and browser settings
Submitted by Alasdair Taylor on Mon, 11/06/2012 - 07:41

The UK ICO's last-minute revisions to its official guidance on the cookie laws focused on the possibility of "implied consent" for the use of cookies. This softening of the ICO's position was sensible, notwithstanding that the whole cookie law saga brings EU tech law into disrepute. There was, however, another option open to the ICO. They could have taken the position that consent could be indicated by browser settings.

Legal area:
data protection law
internet law