Ethical, Legal, and Regulatory Issues: B2B vs. B2C

Introduction

In these tough economic times, coping with the legal, ethical and regulatory issues related to B2B and B2C sites and the free flow of information is a major concern for both types of e-businesses. There are security concerns, applicable law, site policies, conditions of use, and disclaimers of warranties and limitations of liabilities for both types of websites. Amazon.com and Office Depot.com are the two websites that are compared.

Office Depot

As of December 28, 2002, Office Depot operated 867 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 24 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. Furthermore, the company sells products and services in 20 countries outside of the United States and Canada, including 37 office supply stores in France and 13 in Japan that are owned and operated by the company; and 121 additional office supply stores under joint venture and licensing agreements operating under the Office Depot(R) name in seven foreign countries.

amazon.com's "gift wrapping" for large items

An Office Depot. store in Fremont, California.

Office Depot Store #916 in Torrance, Calif.

The company also operates an award-winning U.S. Office Depot brand Web site at officedepot.com where customers can access Office Depot's low competitive prices seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, as well as a new Spanish language Web site at http://espanol.officedepot.com.

The company also operates 31 other websites in the U.S. and 14 international countries including: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. (investor.officedepot.com)

Ethics

Office Depot Brings Together Visionary Women to Provide Insight to Women Entrepreneurs at Success Strategies For Businesswomen Conference: The Power of Vision and Values, it is with sponsorships like these that enable the company to succeed. It is Office Depot's policy to respect and protect the privacy of their customers and...