In 2018, California passed the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which is slated to take effect the first day of 2020. The CCPA, with protections so similar to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) that it is known to many as “GDPR-lite,” regulates data breaches and consumers’ privacy.

Some of the top legal issues for companies conducting business online and through the internet are internet & e-commerce regulations, domain name acquisition, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) compliance, online privacy, social media policies, e-commerce law, and website agreements (privacy policies and terms of use).

Impersonation and username squatting have increasingly become a common problem for companies today. As companies strive to maintain an online presence, they often become vulnerable to unwanted online behavior like impersonation and username squatting.

Online sweepstakes, games, and contests have become increasingly popular thanks to the widespread use of social media and iOS applications. Companies, however, often overlook the need to include proper documentation and guidelines required by state or federal laws.

In 1998, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law for the purpose of adapting copyright law to a new digital climate.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a safe harbor in certain circumstances for website operators, who host materials submitted by third parties that may infringe the copyrights of others.

Domain listings and website listing services are generally scams. Domain owners often get invoices under the guise of an important and urgent deadline to “maintain” or “renew” a domain name listing before it expires. Domain owners should be careful of such notices.

Domain squatting is also known as cybersquatting. It consists of the bad faith registration of a domain name that includes the trademark of a third party. Cybersquatters register domains with the intent to unlawfully profit from the trademark owner, either through diversion of traffic or the attempted sale of the domain to the trademark owner or a competitor thereof.

TLD stands for “Top-Level Domain” and is the root part of a domain name consisting of the portion after the last dot in a domain name. For example, .”com.” There are over 1500 TLDs in existence and the number keeps growing as new TLDs are requested and allowed.

The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process of dispute resolutionestablished by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that all registrars are bound to follow. It allows for expedited review in the form of an administrative proceeding for disputes alleging abusive domain registrations.

Before buying a domain name, one should do some domain acquisition diligence to help ensure the domain is actually available for use as intended, and that there are no third party rights attached to a chosen name that could have negative consequences later. Once a domain is clear for use, if the domain name is available on the open market, one can simply purchase it from any accredited domain name registrar.

Domain hijacking is the theft of a domain by changing the ownership and/or access without the authorization of the rightful owner. Too often, domain owners do not properly safeguard access to their domains. Common mistakes, such as the sharing of passwords, using generic passwords, not changing default settings on hosting or Word Press sites, installing plugins and not keeping them updated, are all examples of how domains can become vulnerable to domain hijacking.

Although there are numerous laws that can affect online businesses and general online transactions and activities, there are some more common things online businesses should be aware of—at least in general—to know when to confirm compliance and/or seek the advice of legal counsel for assistance with compliance.

Internet lawyers assist online businesses with advice on best practices for compliance with the various regulations that affect a particular type of business. These attorneys further represent consumers against harm and damages caused from online activities and business transactions.

There is no all-encompassing law that covers internet activity and e-commerce business. The laws that will apply are specific to the type of transaction, the business, the jurisdictions involved, as well as a myriad of other contextual factors.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) simply refers to businesses and individuals that buy and sell goods online.