From AP: “A federal jury has ruled that eBay’s model for selling fixed-price merchandise violates a patent filed by a Virginia attorney, a ruling that could force the online auction house to shed as much as a third of its total business. The decision: Mercexchange, LLC v. eBAY, Inc and Half.com, Inc., May 27, 2003… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: E-Commerce
Hearing on Spam
Today the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation held a hearing on Spam (Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail). “Description: Members will hear testimony relating to potential legislative, technical, and other approaches to curtailing unwanted spam. Senator McCain will preside.” The committee provides the full-text of available testimony via this main link. See also, Microsoft Proposes Law… Continue Reading
FTC Testimony on Fair Credit Reporting Act
From the FTC press release: Prepared Statement of the Federal Trade Commission on The Fair Credit Reporting Act, Presented by J. Howard Beales, III, Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, United States Senate: Text of Commission Testimony [PDF 64KB]. Continue Reading
Fair Credit Act Reauthorization Hearing
The House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, held a hearing on May 8, The Importance of the National Credit Reporting System to Consumers and the U.S. Economy. See this link for full-text access to the opening statements of Representative Carolyn Maloney and Representative Rubén Hinojosa, as well as testimony… Continue Reading
Net Gambling Bill Approved By House Cmte.
H.R. 21, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act, sponsored by Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), was passed by the House Committee on Financial Services yesterday. See also Hearing on Proposals to Regulate Illegal Internet Gambling, Senate Banking Committee, March 18, 2003, and GAO-03-89 Report, December 20, 2002, Internet Gambling, An Overview of the Issues. Continue Reading
Canadian Privacy Law Impacts E-Commerce
Canadian Privacy Law Deadline Approaching: “Beginning Jan. 1, 2004, all companies that collect, use or disclose personal information about Canadian citizens during the course of commercial activities will have to comply with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.” Continue Reading
States vs. Feds Over Anti-Spam Legislation
The majority of states attorneys general expressed their opposition to federal anti-spam legislation during the course of the FTC’s three-day Spam Forum currently underway in Washington, D.C. “The states are concerned because both proposals (on the federal level – the CAN SPAM Act and the REDUCE Spam Act) would supersede any state laws, even if… Continue Reading
More News on Anti-Spam Efforts
Spammers obviously continue to irritate a very raw nerve, and Capitol Hill is piling on. Recent federal legislation from Senators Wyden and Burns, Senator Schumer, and now Senator Lofgren’s announcement of the introduction of the Restrict and Eliminate Delivery of Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (REDUCE) Spam Act, added to state legislative efforts, indicate that the battle… Continue Reading
NY Senator Schumer Wages War Against Spam
Senator Charles E. Schumer announced the release of a new study (The Dark Side of E-Commerce: The EMail Spam Epidemic) indicating that “New York City residents receive 8.25 million junk emails a day and spend 4.2 million hours a year eliminating spam messages.” This announcement also stated the Senator plans to introduce new legislation to… Continue Reading
Corporations Leverage Search Technologies
Interesting article from News.com that highlights how Ford Motor Company leveraged the technology of Ask Jeeves to analyze, design and implement more effective website features in response to consumer concerns during the Firestone tire recall, and thereafter. Continue Reading
New FTC Study on False Claims and Spam
This new report from the FTC, False Claims in Spam (16 page pdf), states that is the first extensive review of deceptive and unfair practices that appear in unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE). The study analyzed 1,000 spam e-mails drawn from a pool of 11,000 such messages, and concluded that at least one form of deception… Continue Reading
Advocacy Group Files Privacy Complaint Against eBay
Junkbusters Corp., an organization whose declared mission is to stop spam, sent a letter to the FTC on April 22 requesting that the agency investigate discrepancies in the privacy statements posted by eBay as they result in the dissemination of personal data without customer knowledge. Junkbusters President Jason Catlett contends that eBay’s use of two… Continue Reading
