The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 came into force on 21 August 2002 and seeks to promote e-business and help build consumer confidence and protection. The regulation applies to those who provide and receive online based services. The regulation does not apply to a number of areas including taxation, particularly VAT, agreements, betting, gaming or lotteries.
What are the key features of the Regulations?
Establishment of Service Providers
The Regulations seek to liberalize the provision of online services in two key ways, they require UK-established service providers to comply with UK laws even if they are providing their services in another Member State and they prevent the UK authorities (including the courts) from restricting the provision of information society services from another Member State in the EEA to the UK.
General Information Requirements
The Regulations require service providers to make available to their customers basic information concerning their activities, including the name of the service provider and the geographic address at which the service provider is established.
Commercial Communications
The Regulations require commercial communications to be clearly identified as such. The person on whose behalf the commercial communication is made must be clearly identifiable. Any conditions to be included must be easily accessible and presented clearly and unambiguously. The Regulations require unsolicited commercial communications sent by e-mail to be clearly and unambiguously identifiable as such as soon as they are received.
Billboard Posters
Posters are used by BMW to advertise. Billboard posters usually contain a large image of a particular offer/car model, therefore to keep competing companies from copying the advertisement techniques used by BMW, government officials have created certain rules and regulations designed to limit competitors powers over what they can use from competitors posters as well as what type of information BMW can put into their posters.
BMW has to make sure that the Information provided in poster is accurate and complete, meaning that the company can’t provide figures which don’t apply to the overall realistic deal which the company is trying to advertise. Also the company must make sure that images included in the poster are obtained lawfully and that they have the full rights to use all images. Images used in the leaflet must not discriminate or effect any member or reader, meaning that the company must make sure that images do not imply that a certain person or a certain symptom will stop them from taking advantage of such deals or that only that type of person can take advantage of such deals.
E-mails
E-mailing customers special offers and product information is very common upon companies nowadays. BMW is no exception, fans of the company as well as customer can sign-up to receive regular e-mails from the company informing them of special events, new models etc.
In recent years as technology advances websites and e-mail applications have been made safer and safer with the use of new integrated technology and better safety advice. Although this has reduced the amount of e-crime it hasn’t stopped it fully. Meaning that criminals are still finding different ways to trick people into giving them there information. Certain legislations have been put in place in order to prosecute criminals. Legislations such as:
Data Protection Act 1988 Affects
This policy is applicable to anyone who is storing any personal data. The purpose of the act is to protect the individual rights and freedoms of persons; especially their right to privacy with respect to the processing of personal data.
Given that email is a major medium for exchange and storage of personal information. It is difficult to find systems that are dedicated to consumer protection and therefore only specialist e-mail servers have such powers over protecting personal information.
Financial Services Act 198
The (Financial Services Authority) was created, which is an agency with broad regulatory powers to govern the financial industry. Whilst the act itself is not specific with regard to email retention, the FSA has imposed some guidance in relation to records retention. For example, in relation to guidance on Money Laundering, records relating to transactions, reports and “information not acted on” must be retained for a period of 5 years.
Financial organizations need to review their compliance with FSA guidance in relation to the email. Given the need to retain records for varying numbers of years, a dedicated email archive store is required to ensure that that these requirements are met.