The great attractions of the Internet are its flexibility and its international reach and, some might say, its anarchic nature. However, a company planning advertising or trading on the Internet must not assume that it is not regulated. This is simply not true. This paper focuses primarily on the regulation affecting advertising and the financial services sector (which is already a heavily regulated area in its own right). Financial services companies should be aware, however, that there is a raft of other relevant legislation, such as data protection (including the trail‐blazing data protection bill published on 14th January 1998) which is required to implement a 1995 EU Data Protection Directive in the United Kingdom.

Focuses mainly on the self-regulation of multimedia and the Internet, particularly where advertising is concerned, touching on issues associated with liability for content, discrimination and computer misuse and some of the difficult jurisdictional issues surrounding advertising on the Internet. Considers the situation from the perspective of English law and regulation, but also covers relevant voluntary codes of practice from bodies such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Raises the question of Internet activity from the point of view of where a transaction takes place and its relevance due to the fact that this determines the regulatory and legal systems to which a party or transaction is subject. In addition, primary new regulatory problems include: the ease with which the Internet can be used for cross-border transactions involving UK consumers having access to UK or overseas product or service providers; the ease with which overseas product providers can set up a Web site and access prospective customers worldwide; the increased use of electronic documents to carry out investment transactions; the use of electronic payment systems (raising issues of security of payments over the Internet); concerns regarding the security of unencrypted messages sent over the Internet; and whether “health warnings” required or recommended by relevant laws, regulations and codes can be sidestepped. Further aspects of Internet law/regulation include: intelligent agents; general regulation of advertising in the UK (review of UK advertising regulation, adverse publicity, refusal of advertising space, legal proceedings); and the British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion (BCASP).

The European Commission has issued a consultation paper on the E-Money Directive 2000/46/EC (the “Directive”), which examines specifically when using a mobile phone will result in the use of e-money. E-money is defined in the Directive as monetary value which is stored on an electronic device, such as a chip card or computer memory, issued on receipt of funds, and accepted as a means of payment by an entity other than the issuer. Issuers of e-money are required under the Directive to implement safeguards against money laundering and to allow the e-money to be redeemed at face value.

At the end of August 2001, the Department of Trade & Industry, the Communications and Information Industries Directorate, published their consultation document on implementation of the Electronic Commerce Directive.11Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic commerce) (OJ L 178, 17.7.2000, p.1) This is timely, since Member States are supposed to have implemented the Electronic Commerce Directive into national laws by 16 January 2002. The UK Government plans to implement the requirements of the Directive by means of secondary legislation under Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 and under specific sectoral legislation where appropriate. Section 2(2) is a general enabling power to pass legislation to implement European legislation. In the light of the responses to the consultation document, the DTI will be producing draft regulations. What follows is a summary of the consultation.

On 6 March 2001, the House of Commons Trade and Industry Committee, Session 2000–01, published the Sixth Report on ‘Local Loop Unbundling’, accompanied by details of the discussions of the Committee, and various written submissions provided by telecommunications operators and others referred to in the Report. The Report is available from The Stationery Office, priced at £17.00. This note explores its contents.

Currently, the nature of mobile telephony is such that a telecommunications operator needs to know where a mobile phone is on its network and the technology allows this to within a few hundred yards of the phone, or even less. New mobile telecommunications technologies are expected to enable the location of more or less the exact positioning of a mobile user’s terminal equipment. While this sort of technology has advantages that clearly benefit mobile users (for example, to enable emergency services to send assistance), it remains important to protect the privacy of mobile users and this technology should not be allowed to create a situation where mobile users are under ‘constant surveillance’.

Practice of prophylaxis against venous thromboembolism (VTE) following surgical procedures has been in the scenario for about half a century. Despite the surging evidence regarding the clinical and economic efficacy, the practice remains underutilized. The study was aimed at optimizing the prophylactic practices for prevention of VTE in the general surgical patients in a tertiary care hospital using a pharmacist assisted multi-strategy intervention.The prospective quasi-experimental study was conducted in general surgical department of a tertiary care hospital in Kerala. The initial audit phase was targeted at assessing the prevailing prophylactic practices and its adequacy in relation to American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) guidelines. This was followed by an educational phase where physicians were provided the feedback and institutional protocol. The third phase involved intervention through patient risk stratification and prophylactic recommendation by pharmacist concomitantly with reaudit.The overall non-compliance to the therapy decreased from 52% in the control phase to 20% in the intervention phase with P = 0.0009. The partial compliance to therapy reduced from 40% in the control phase to 32% in the intervention phase with P = 0.4047. Total compliance to therapy increased from 8% in the control to 48% in the intervention stage and the difference was found to be significant with P < 0.0001.The study was effective in increasing the overall compliance to the ACCP 9th guidelines by 40% and the average duration by 1.61 days. Clinical pharmacist assisted multi-strategy interventions were effective in enhancing the appropriateness of the prophylaxis as per the ACCP recommendations.Les recommandations concernant la prévention du thrombo-embolisme veineux (VTE) postopératoire datent d’un demi-siècle. Malgré l’évidence de l’efficacité clinique et économique, les recommandations restent encore parfois peu ou mal utilisées. L’étude a visé à optimiser les pratiques de prévention du VTE chez les patients hospitalisés en chirurgie générale dans un hôpital de soin possédant des pharmaciens cliniciens.L’étude quasi expérimentale éventuelle a été conduite dans le département de chirurgie générale d’un hôpital du Kerala. La phase initiale a été un audit des pratiques prophylactiques existantes et leur adéquation avec les directives cliniques de l’American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). Ceci a été suivi par une phase éducative où les pharmaciens cliniciens ont présenté le résultat d’audit aux médecins avec un protocole institutionnel. La troisième phase a impliqué une intervention des pharmaciens selon le profil de risque du patient avec un rappel de la recommandation prophylactique et dans la foulée un nouvel audit.Le non-respect global à la thérapie a diminué de 52 % dans la phase de contrôle à 20 % dans la phase d’intervention (p = 0,0009). La conformité partielle aux directives cliniques a été réduite de 40 % pour la phase de contrôle jusqu’à 32 % pour la phase d’intervention (p = 0,4047). La conformité totale aux directives cliniques s’est accrue significativement de 8 % pour le contrôle jusqu’à 48 % pour l’étape d’intervention (p < 0,0001).La stratégie utilisée s’est avérée efficace pour améliorer la conformité globale aux 9es directives ACCP (+ 40 %) et la durée moyenne à 1,61 jours. Les interventions du pharmacien clinicien se sont avérées efficaces pour assurer le respect des directives cliniques de l’ACCP.

On 18 November, the European Commission announced “a proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on certain legal aspects of electronic commerce in the Internal Market”. Single Market Commissioner, Mario Monti, commented, “electronic commerce adds a new dimension to the Single Market for consumers in terms of easier access to goods and services of better quality and at lower prices. Electronic commerce will promote trade, stimulate innovation and competitiveness and create sustainable jobs. This proposal should ensure that the Union reaps the full benefits of electronic commerce by boosting consumer confidence and giving operators legal certainty, without excessive red tape.” This article reviews the Commission's plans.

This article examines the Directive and its proposed UK implementation with particular reference to its likely impact upon the direct marketing and call centre industries.

It is a commonly held belief that the Internet is unregulated and slightly (if not very) anarchic. To a limited extent this may have been true historically (particularly as a result of its closed user community). However, this is no longer the case. As business and commerce move to exploit the economic potential of the Internet, the authorities that police and regulate everyday activities are focusing increasingly their attention on the Internet, using existing laws and powers to regulate activity over the ‘Net’. Whilst it may be true that in many instances the existing laws sit uncomfortably with a system that ignores national boundaries, nonetheless activities on the Internet are regulated and subjected to the application of both criminal and civil laws.

With the exponential growth in the use of the Internet in the past three or four years and its metamorphosis from a military and academic network to a business tool and recreational arena, the business and user communities' attention has focused increasingly on its inherent (or perceived) weaknesses and the manner in which they can be reduced or eliminated. At the forefront of current thinking in terms of security is the use of cryptography and cryptographic techniques which can be used to ensure the confidentiality of communications, the integrity of messages and data packets and to confirm the identity of the communicating parties. Until the early 1970s, the science of cryptography was primarily of interest to governments (so that secure communications could be used by the military and intelligence services) and academic mathematicians. With the increase in the number of computer networks and uses to which they were put, security, and hence cryptographic systems, became of increasing importance to users of the systems especially in the financial services sector. However, governments (and the intelligence agencies in particular) guarded jealously the technologies in question and digital cryptographic systems were included in the list of controlled technologies produced by the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Exports Control — COCOM1.

The European Union is firmly based on the belief that the consumer should be allowed the greatest choice. To further this end, the new year signalled an attempt by the European Union to open what has been a very closed door and allow full competition in the telecommunications industry. Hitherto, whilst telecommunication services and various areas have been opened to competition, Voice Telephony remained the last bastion of the state monopolists. Thus, the Community has passed laws in the area of fixed and mobile telephony, the provision of services and interconnection charges to ensure a level-playing field from where the new game can commence. Operators will be obliged to interconnect with each other, at charges to be objectively calculated in accordance with the Interconnection Directive. Additionally, companies outside the EU will be allowed to play by taking a stake in national providers.

This article reviews the various stages in the development of UK Government policy towards the creation of a secure environment for electronic commerce.

Up to now very little has been written about the legal and technological issues raised by European Monetary Union (EMU) — the arrival of EMU raises questions that extend far beyond the economic considerations. Heather Rowe explains why EMU is an important issue for the technology.

This note examines Oftel's guidelines on the operation of the ‘fair trading condition’ in the licences of telecoms providers such as BT and Mercury.