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3  Making and accepting payment

For transactional e-commerce sites, the relevant laws are those referring to liability between 

a credit card issuer, the merchant and the buyer. Merchants need to be aware of their liability 

for different situations such as the customer making a fraudulent transaction.

4  Authenticating contracts concluded over the Internet

‘Authentication’ refers to establishing the identity of the purchaser. For example, to help 

prove a credit card owner is the valid owner, many sites now ask for a  three-  digit authentica-

tion code. This helps reduce the risk of someone who has, for instance, found a credit card 

number using it to buy fraudulently. Using digital signatures is another method of helping to 

prove the identity of purchasers (and merchants).

5  Email risks

One of the main risks with email is infringing an individual’s privacy. Specific laws have been 

developed in many countries to reduce the volume of spam, as explained in the previous sec-

tion on privacy.

A further issue with email is defamation, where someone makes a statement that is 

potentially damaging to an individual or a company. In 2000, a statement was made on 

the Norwich Union Healthcare internal email system in England which falsely alleged 

that rival company WPA was under investigation and that regulators had forced it to 

stop accepting new business. The posting was published on the internal email system, but 

it was not contained and became more widespread. WPA sued for libel and the case was 

settled out of court when Norwich Union paid £415,000 to WPA. Such cases are relatively  

rare.