IV. Drawbacks of eCommerce

Although eCommerce may seem like a perfect market and a utopian way of doing business, there are many issues, challenges and opportunities related to doing business on the web. . There are two main issues that are associated with eCommerce; legal and security issues. Often doing business on the web can result in legal issues relating to property concerns, copyright, privacy and trademarks. (Nasir) These security issues, as well as many others, must be maintained regularly and encrypted to a level of security where both the merchant and consumer feel comfortable exchanging information. (Richardson) Privacy is handled by encryption. Often digital certificates are also used to ensure privacy and authentication when transferring data over the web. (Holcombe) Today, there are over 100 countries that have Internet access, over 20 million Internet hosts worldwide and over 100 million people with the access to the World Wide Web. This rapid growth of the use of the web raises a number of new regulatory issues and legal concerns. Internet laws are very complex and have a broad spectrum of views.  One key component of any website dealing with eCommerce is incorporating the business, copyright rules and trademarks. (Silver) A copyright is an important factor in eCommerce, as its “important when you obtain content for your site, and in the protection of your site's content.”  (Silver) However, a trademark allows one to register their business so that a “consumer can correctly identify the goods and service you produce, as well as distinguish a reputable name that can be represented so that your company name is not re-used, so there will be no legal issues where anyone can sue you.” (Silver)