Nowland Law blog readers will know that we have covered ADA, GDPR and CCPA laws that business owners need to be aware and compliant of. While these affect most businesses, there are some more ‘specialized’ website laws. It’s a good idea to take a look at them to make sure your industry doesn’t fall into one of these categories.
Naturally, we must remind you, that this article should not be considered legal advice. You must consult with a business attorney about your specific situation.
Are there any other laws I should be worried about?
The bigger your company is, the more laws you need to worry about. Here are a few other laws that affect business websites under less common conditions.
(By less common, we mean it is less common for a small business to have to worry about a particular law. Still, you are doing the right thing by pursuing this list to research if you might be affected, but you can always work with compliance professionals or business lawfirms to make sure you are fully compliant.)
California Civil Code 1798:29 and 1798:80
You can read more about the requirements here, but among the regulations enacted in 2002, if your website or other systems experience a data breach, you must inform California residents when their information may have been exposed. This is explicitly required when unencrypted information may have been exposed.
You should also know that many, if not most states have their own codes or laws that require similar reporting for customers that live in those states. In general, it is a good practice to hire an experienced business attorney or data breach consultant when a data breach might have occurred to determine what compliance you face.
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
This law was enacted in 1998, and is one of the oldest website laws on the books. It dictates how websites that store personal information should handle the storing or consent obtaining of the data of minors.
Communications Decency Act
This law deals with objectionable content. Businesses need only look into this if the content on their website might offend polite company.
California Transparency in Supply Chain Act
This law might affect retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, brokers, and importers, exporters, and white labelers with a presence in California. The whole aim is to have the companies provide an updating documentation chain showing that the company is doing everything is can to avoid slavery and human trafficking in it’s supply chain process. However, this compliance burden is typically only put on large companies. Talk with a business law firm to see if you are affected.
There are other laws concerning how you administrate your business website, however, these typically tend to be industry specific. It is always a good idea to learn about the compliance requirements of your specific industry.
We wish you many profitable and lawsuit free days.