Web Site Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues

Essay by jvaccaroUniversity, Bachelor'sA, January 2007

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Introduction

The three e-Business Web sites the team analyzed are Expedia.com, Orbitz.com, and Travelocity.com. The sites fall under the category of travel so it would seem that each company would encounter the same ethical, legal, and regulatory issues. An evaluation of each site will determine what, if any, of the above mentioned issues each e-business encounters and what resolutions are in place.

Expedia

The laws of the State of Washington govern Expedia, Inc. Jurisdiction for a dispute that may arise from use of the web site will fall under the courts in King County, Washington. Expedia is a registered seller of travel in California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Washington. Expedia is worldwide with sites in Netherlands, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Expedia, in an effort to be a trusted and useful online travel agent, has created the "Customer Bill of Rights" explaining their commitment to the customer.

The bill of rights states the customer will have access to a customer service agent 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Further, all e-mails will receive a response within 4 hours and an agent is available for personal contact via an 800 number. The bill of rights states that credit card purchases are protected two ways; transactions are protected by Secure Sockets Layer encryption technology and a card used to make a purchase is protected immediately from unauthorized charges. Personal information is protected and can be changed at any time and the consumer has the option of receiving or not receiving e-mail notifications regarding promotions. Lastly, the bill states that Expedia will provide accurate information and fares will be updated as they are changed (expedia.com, Customer Bill of Rights, 2005).

Per Expedia.com's privacy pledge, Expedia utilizes systems that are configured with data encryption and industry...