Insights

Internet & eCommerce

Internet and eCommerce insights on contracts, privacy, digital compliance, and platform operations.

Auto Renewal and Subscription Compliance

If your business charges customers on a recurring basis, the enrollment page, confirmation, renewal notices, and cancellation process each create compliance obligations. Federal law and state statutes focus on material disclosures, informed consent, and a usable way to stop recurring charges.

CAN-SPAM Compliance for Online Businesses: What the Law Requires for Every Marketing Email You Send

CAN-SPAM regulates commercial email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service. The law covers individual messages and bulk campaigns alike, including messages to business contacts, existing customers, subscribers, and consumers.

FTC Endorsement Guides and Influencer Disclosure

If someone has a relationship with a brand and publicly recommends that brand's product, the relationship may require disclosure. The FTC's Endorsement Guides, [16 C.F.R. Part 255](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-255), explain how Section 5 of the FTC Act applies to endorsements and testimonials. They cover social media posts, reviews, podcasts, videos, affiliate content, demonstrations, tags, and other messages consumers may understand as reflecting someone else's views or experience.

SaaS Agreements for Providers and Their Customers

When you deliver software as a service, a product sale becomes an ongoing relationship. You host the application, control the infrastructure, release updates, process customer data, and keep the service available.

Section 230 and Content Moderation

If your online business lets users post reviews, comments, listings, messages, or other material, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act can limit when a claim treats you as the publisher or speaker of another person's content. The statute provides no blanket immunity for everything a platform does. The claim, the duty alleged, and the source of the information control the analysis.

Website Terms of Service and Online Contract Formation

Your terms of service bind only the users who received legally sufficient notice and assented to them. When a dispute arrives, the company holding the arbitration clause has to prove which terms it offered, how the screen presented them, what action signified acceptance, who took that action, and which version governed the transaction.