Title: Meeting the UK Ecommerce Regulations
By: Author: James Saunders

Many UK small businesses with ecommerce web sites are failing
to meet the legal requirements of the following acts and
directives:

• Ecommerce Directive
  2002
• Data Protection Act 1998
type="square">Distance Selling Act 2000

This is
often due to misunderstanding their responsibilities or simply
lack of resources. However, failing to comply with these legal
requirements may seriously damage your web site and your
business.

By promoting compliance with these legal
obligations, your web site will gain more credibility and
increase customer's confidence.

Useful
Resources

The following links provide essential
information related to the UK ecommerce regulations.

• The Data Protection Act 1998 - http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/
• The Consumer Protection
  (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 - href="http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/pdf1/bus_guide.pdf">http:
  //www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/pdf1/bus_guide.pdf


• The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 -
  http://www2.dti.gov.uk/industry_files/pdf/smallbusiness
  guidance.pdf

Data Protection

(a) You must register under the Data Protection Act if you
collect information about people (for example, employees,
customers and visitors). This information can include names,
addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.

(b) You
must state what you do with your subject's data and not deviate
from that statement.

(c) The Act is applicable to
businesses of any size.

(d) You must not export the
personal data outside the EC (European Community) without
permission from the people you are collecting data on.

(e) You must ensure that all information is held securely and
must be revealed or deleted upon request from the subjects of
the information.

(f) You must only record pertinent data
to your prime business needs.

Consumer Protection
(Distance Selling) Regulations

The Consumer Protection
(Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 apply to many ecommerce
sites. However, they are not applicable to
‘business-to-business’ transactions.

(a)
You must provide clear information about your products and
services before purchase.

(b) You must be clear about
postage and packing costs and whether VAT is included in the
prices shown on your website.

(c) You must provide a
written confirmation of order following purchase, e.g., via
email.

(d) You must allow a "cooling off"
period of 7 working days for most goods. Certain exclusions do
apply and include perishable and digital goods.

(e) You
must inform your customers of their right to cancel their order
with no loss other than return postage and packing.

Ecommerce Directive

(a) You must display the name of
your business, the company registration number (or proprietor's
name), geographical address (not PO Box number), contact
information e.g., telephone number and email address, VAT
registration number (if registered).

(b) You may refer to
trade or professional schemes if applicable.

(c) You must
provide clear information on price, tax and delivery to
buyers.

(d) You must clearly display your site’s
Terms and Conditions.

(e) You must acknowledge all
orders.

(f) In commercial communication with your
customers, you must clearly identify any electronic
communication designed to promote your goods or services.

(g) You must clearly identify the sender of all electronic
communication.

(h) You must clearly define any
promotional offers and the qualifying conditions regarding these
offers.

(i) If you send unsolicited emails, you must
clearly identify them as unsolicited.

Other means of
increasing Ecommerce Credibility

In addition to ensuring
that you satisfy the ecommerce regulations, you can gain extra
credibility by:

• (a) Including verifiable
  testimonials.
• (b) Allowing payment via other means than
  online, e.g. via telephone or mail order.
• (c) Ensuring
  that all transactions that involve the transfer of personal and
  payment details are secure (via SSL).
• (d) Ensuring that
  your shopping cart does not make the following common
  mistakes:
• Call a shopping cart something
  else!
• Use a ‘Buy Now’ button instead of
  a ‘Add to Cart’ button
• Give no feedback
  that an item has been added to the cart
• Force the user
  to view the cart after each added item
• Make the user
  register before adding items to a cart
• Not provide a
  ‘Remove Item’ button