New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo made an announcement today that protects consumers making purchases via the internet, saying quite flatly, “The Internet is no longer the Wild West of commerce.” This measure defines online and Internet purchases as equivalent to catalog/mail and telephone orders when it comes to buyer protection.

From Cuomo’s website:

Last year, more than 1,000 consumer complaints were submitted to the Attorney General’s Internet Bureau regarding failure to deliver goods ordered online or other improper conduct related to online purchases. The measure affords online consumers the same protections as those who make purchases over the phone or through the mail. Those protections include:

* Orders cannot be accepted for merchandise which cannot be reasonably anticipated to be shipped within 30 days.
* All advertising and promotional materials must prominently feature: the legal name of the company, complete street address and details about what conditions in which a refund will be issued.
* If products fail to ship within 30 days, the company must clearly provide the buyer with the opportunity to cancel the order and receive a refund or receive substitute merchandise.
* Companies must maintain records of all complaints of failure to ship merchandise or provide advertised services.

As far as I’m aware, this new law applies to products only (as opposed to services), but I’m sure that’s the next step in this state. Cuomo’s been cracking down on a lot of things since taking office - this is just one more consumer-minded direction, but every single business owner who offers a product for sale on their website needs to know about this.

What confuses me just a little is that I wasn’t really aware that this was any more a problem for online business than it was for traditional mail-order business. But I suppose that there will always be people who find the legal loopholes - and this new law closes off the circle completely.

Assemblyman Jack McEneny said, “The bill would protect consumers who shop through the Internet by requiring that their purchases be delivered in a timely manner. Internet businesses will no longer be able to evade the clear intention of the law that has long applied to all other businesses.”

So - to all my clients and NY based business friends - it’s time to start tightening up the proverbial belts!

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