Marketplace & e-Commerce Section

are the most interesting
projects in terms of the
legal problems that arise.

New markets

There are more than 200 countries in the world, and each of them has local tax laws that must be observed (withholding and sales tax in the US, VAT in the EU or GST in Australia).
GEO extension must involve highly competent legal expertise.
Various marketplaces are used to market all types of goods, as well as digital products and services. Each type of a product/service is regulated differently, as selling website templates, meats, audio books, children's toys, branded clothing or yachts is not the same thing and entails different legal requirements and limitations.

Integration

Marketplaces, either by themselves or through partners, provide escrow or agent services, accept and make payments and use cashback mechanics.
Marketplaces & e-Commerce projects, as a rule, are low margin and high-turnover enterprises. This means that availability of financial instruments with maximum coverage and minimum commission fees is a priority for them. Americans love PayPal and the Belgians prefer to use plastic cards. Such peculiarities of each market imply not only different economic, but also legal consequences, limitations and requirements.

Advertising

Advertising is strictly regulated by law. It is carried out on Google, Facebook, Yandex, Bing and other platforms. In addition to that, there are also affiliate marketing platforms, where webmasters advertise their marketplace themselves. Television, radio and offline platforms in some countries are usually not that far behind their digital counterparts when it comes to advertising. Contracts with advertisers, public offers for webmasters, or agreements signed with advertising agencies protect businesses, specify the basic metrics of advertising campaigns (marginal cost of leads or conversion rates, traffic sources, advertising budgets, etc.) and limit liability.

Personal data

Marketplaces process the data of millions of users which is protected by the GDPR in the EU and the US CCPA or local legislation in the US. Both small and large companies may be fined for noncompliance with the data protection laws and regulations. There are already thousands of actual cases of companies being fined for breaching data protection rules, for example, a company in Austria was fined EUR 4,000 per street-cam installed near an office in Austria, or a UK firm had to pay EUR 208,000,000 in Britain for leaking the personal data of 380,000 customers/clients.

Partners, disputes and everlasting claims

Business relations with dropshippers and resellers are governed by special (often personalized) agreements. Claimants in disputes associated with plagiarism and online scams apply instruments provided for by the “Internet law”, among which are DMCA complaints or notifications of violation of intellectual property rights via Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or Google.

Such a number of variables is not seen in any other industry, and this is blue sky, for lawyers.