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European researchers have created a wiki to explain the laws of the Internet to SMEs and encourage more SMEs to go online.
Margaretha Mazura, secretary general of the European Multimedia Forum and initiator of the Framework Programme 6 project LEKTOR, which developed the wiki says, “Fear of legal problems is one of the main reasons why SMEs are slow to launch internet-based services, from e-commerce to online marketing”
No doubt they have good reason. In Internet law, as in so many other fields of legislation Europe has a patchwork of different requirements. Even where European directives exist, the national regulations implementing the directive vary from country to country.
For example, the regulations regarding business-to-consumer spam are well established, and consumers must opt-in every time. But in the business-to-business the rules vary. In Italy for example it is necessary to opt-out, in Germany to opt in.
Another variation is that consumers can legally return goods from 7 to 15 days after receipt, depending on their country of residence. Time spent in transit does not count, so SMEs selling to customers in some countries face a cooling-off period of up to one month.
“It is vital for SMEs to know what regulations apply to which country, to respect them, and then to adjust their cash flow to reflect their obligations,” notes Mazura.
Lexelerator is LEKTOR’s free Web 2.0 platform for internet law, an online source for legal information, aimed at SMEs who want to start e-commerce or internet services. It provides non-technical information, supplied by experts in the field, relating to internet law.
The EU-funded platform uses the open source content management system Drupal, which allows different levels of access for different users.
The top level of access is reserved for contributors, who are vetted by LEKTOR to ensure their bona fides.
To date, the wiki is in English, but a number of blogs in a variety of languages that provide similar information, and all information is searchable. Moreover, registered users are able to add tags, so if there is a discussion about advertising in the wiki, French-language users can tag it publicité, for example, thus enhancing the search function.
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