Legal Issues Related to E-Commerce - Essay Example

E-commerce Students Name University Course Lecturer Date Most of the standards applied in Information Technology are also applicable to e-commerce. However, there are ethical issues specific to e-commerce. E-commerce use of web tracking with programs like cookies to track individual’s movement highly raises concerns on privacy. In turn, some end users have to use software like My Privacy and Privacy Guardian to guard against cookies. E-commerce payment systems end up leaving buyers’ details and it raises questions on how online firms protect users’ information Nardal & Sahin (2011). E-commerce negatively affects traditional channels due to its direct marketing that affects stores who sells the company products in similar geographical regions. There are a number of legal issues related to e-commerce. First, fraud on the Internet has increased with many imposters luring small investors about stocks. Financial criminals have had access to people’s emails and they operate bogus investments claiming to be legal e-commerce merchants (Caudill & Murphy, 2000). Copyright and intellectual property are hard to protect mostly for software products sold through e-commerce as the buyer can distribute to other uses infringing copyright laws. E-commerce has led to increased infringement of trademarks through the use of domains that are close or similar to those of top level companies (Nardal & Sahin, 2011). As Koh, Fichman & Kraut (2009) observes, industrial leaders have witnessed pressure to move to online platforms and that has been the main driver to the current migration to business-to-business e-commerce (B2B). B2B e-commerce involves all sales transactions that include all businesses like manufactures versus wholesalers, wholesalers versus retailers which are conducted through Internet or via mobile commerce. Currently, there is intense competition from some web powerhouses like AmazonSupply.com and Alibaba.com and forecast shows that B2B online sales will rise to $6.7 trillion by 2020 (Demery, 2015). International B2B Markets and E-commerce  Sila (2013) observes that, B2B marketers and firms tend to cluster around similar geographical areas. The cluster occurs as human and natural resources required by these firms are accessible in some areas than others. Sellers also want to be close to buyers to help them get inventory fast. However, that is not the case today in e-commerce as much of marketing is conducted electronically. In the past, United States caused e-commerce to operate similar to B2B market but since it is currently a mature market with limited growth, much focus is now on emerging markets like India, China and Brazil. Koh, Fichman & Kraut (2009) further points out that, B2B exchanges are sites that bring together multiple buyers and sellers. The sites make money through charges made to the buyers and sellers a fee as they conduct transactions. Companies have developed e-commerce systems that promote customers to carry out many things on their own. In turn, they have cut down much of customer service require to customers. Companies sign up with railroads or rail cars and choose the routes that they vehicle should travel, track rail cars online. The customers have websites customized with catalogs with all products to buy and prices based on their past purchases. Sila (2013) argues that, there are various B2B markets like sell-side site where a seller sell products to various buyers. Buy-side site involves a business buying products from various sellers that carries out business with it. B2B customers easily shop from their offices or house, read blogs, bid on products and finally make a call or meet with sellers. Buyers are also able to compare prices and mostly settle for the cheapest. E-Commerce payment systems According to Kabir & Akhtar Hasin (2011), traditional payment systems highly relied on checks and cash transactions and in US, 85% of all transactions were done by checks in 1979. However, online transactions and electronic payment when buying good and serves over the Internet has grown by 41% and has led to decrease of checks transactions to 59% by 2002. There has been widespread use of internet-based banking and shopping and credit cards are now common modes of payment in e-commerce transactions. Traditional modes of payment had a lot of security problems and it was difficult to detect fraud. They were also rigorous, for instance payment with checks require one to go to a bank to access payment. According to Leavitt (2010), e-commerce payment mechanisms operate as long as an online seller has e-payment server set to support debit and credit cards. There are stringent rules give by card issuers for merchants to follow security protocol to ensure secure transactions. Smartcards are more popularly used and contains embedded 8-bit microprocessor and transfer cash from customer’s card to seller’s device. Online consumer gets to the Internet, access merchant website, order for goods or services and pays electronically. E-commerce payment system has gained a widespread use due to the speed and simplicity of establishing cyber-mediary accounts. However, theft, risk of abuse and wrongful behavior by mediaries are also associated with such payment (Chang & Chen, 2009). Components and roles of the Electronic Commerce environment There are three levels in E-commerce environment with distinct aspects including; domains, vignettes and technology groups as shown in the diagram 1 below. E-commerce transaction is only possible if the seller has online business or stores. The seller uses global service web hosts to reach to customers. E-commerce payment depends on server connection and online stores looks for Web host without network instability. That helps to avoid errors in information and payment transmissions. Companies use strong wireless network protocols so as to detect and correct errors and coding system to address transmission errors. Dig 1.0: Components of e-commerce environment (Adopted from Google Images) The role of e-commerce has been to reform business operation and enhancing competitive business environment. E-commerce advancement has led to evolution and innovation of products, services as well as business processes. As Singh (2009) argues, virtual markets have emerged with primary distinctive like real time, open, shared and global characteristics. E-commerce promotes three activities including dissemination of organization information, products and services, conducting e-commerce payment and business transformation. Its greatest feature is the absence of intermediaries as manufacturers can sell their product easier to dispersed buyers via Internet.  References Caudill, E. M., & Murphy, P. E. (2000). Consumer online privacy: Legal and ethical issues. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 19(1), 7-19. Chang, H. H., & Chen, S. W. (2009). Consumer perception of interface quality, security, and loyalty in electronic commerce. Information & Management,46(7), 411-417. Demery, P. (February, 2015). Global B2B online sales are projected to grow to $6.7 trillion by 2020. I Internet Retailer.com. Retrieved on 1 April 2015 from www.internetretailer.com/2015/02/05/ Kabir, G., & Akhtar Hasin, A. (2011). Evaluation of customer oriented success factors in mobile commerce using fuzzy AHP. Koh, T. K., Fichman, M., & Kraut, R. E. (2009, August). Trust Across Borders: Buyer-Supplier Trust In Global B2b E-Commerce. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2009, No. 1, pp. 1-6). Academy of Management. Leavitt, N. (2010). Payment applications make e-commerce mobile. Computer, 43(12), 19-22. Nardal, S., & Sahin, A. (2011). Ethical issues in e-commerce on the basis of online retailing. Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2), 190. Nardal, S., & Sahin, A. (2011). Ethical issues in e-commerce on the basis of online retailing. Journal of Social Sciences, 7(2), 190. Sila, I. (2013). Factors affecting the adoption of B2B e-commerce technologies. Electronic commerce research, 13(2), 199-236. Singh, S. (2009, November). Emergence of payment systems in the age of electronic commerce: The state of art. In Internet, 2009. AH-ICI 2009. First Asian Himalayas International Conference on (pp. 1-18). IEEE. Read More