An Analysis Of The Legal Challenges In Ecommerce Industry With Special Reference To IPR

Madhushree Chakraborty, Christ (Deemed to be) University

Dr. Peketi Rama Rao, Christ (Deemed to be) University

ABSTRACT

With the modernization and in the area of contemporary ease the ecommerce platform stands as the focus of this revolution. Consumers behaviour tend to shift from the traditional method of commerce towards the dynamic realm of e commerce. With this shift there arises a lot of legal issues which will be addressed in this research paper. The word ecommerce represents the practice of conducting business by electronic means. Though there is no universally accepted definition of ecommerce but different organization gives it a different meaning. By the concept of ecommerce it seems to be a highly modernized, efficient and easy functioning trading system but in reality it is also plagued by many drawbacks that relate to protection of personal data , security, jurisdictional issues , intellectual property rights violations, taxation and other such issues. The fact that consumers are confronted with a significant amount of privacy and data protection problem such as names, addresses, payment information, browsing history etc. which is harvested from their customers in the framework of internet transaction or ecommerce can be considered to be an important issue. Intellectual property rights violation is another area of study which is the main focus of this paper. With the growing size of the Internet, an expanding digital landscape and easy online transactions, exclusive rights for trademark or copyright owners are frequently infringed in spite of intellectual property law. Trademark infringement is caused by the unauthorised use of trade marks or logos in an effort to gain profits, which misleads consumers into believing that their original products originate from a particular source. Similary copyright violation takes place when a person produces or distributes copyrighted content without the permission of the copyright owner and without giving him remuneration . In the field of online commerce, it is therefore necessary to lay down appropriate mechanisms and legal acts that are capable of addressing issues such as copyright or trademark infringement. Further in this research paper, concerns of jurisdiction in the area of Ecommerce are raised. Due to the borderless transactions in ecommerce it becomes difficult to determine the jurisdiction in case of violation of any rights of consumers and as a result the grievances of the consumers remains unheard. To add to this the taxation policies are also different across boarders which further raises issues related to taxes in ecommerce. Earlier there was no concept of taxation in ecommerce as it was a new concept and due to lack of legislation there has been evasion of taxes. However to meet the need of the society the concept of etaxation was brought which refers to the process of collecting taxes on electronic transaction. However e-taxation can be a complex for both the businesses and the government. This paper also highlight the importance and need to address the issues relating to ecommerce and provides remedies, suggestions and solutions which can be applied in cases the above mentioned legal issues related to ecommerce arises and provide a more secured ecommerce transaction for the society at large.

Keywords: Ecommerce, Intellectual Property Rights, Legal Issues, Jurisdiction, Taxation