Internet Alcohol Sales Question Hits The Supreme Court

from the how-badly-do-they-want-to-order-out-of-state-wine? dept

While it's been talked about for ages, it looks like the question of whether or not states can ban inter-state internet orders of alcohol is finally going to the Supreme Court, following a long series of earlier cases in the lower courts, often with contradictory rulings. This isn't just about alcohol, either, but other prohibitions on e-commerce, such as bans on ordering contact lenses online. How the Court rules is likely to have a major impact on a variety of businesses, and could be a proxy for a variety of other questions concerning how the "online" jurisdiction works with offline jurisdictions -- a question that courts all over the world have been avoiding as much as they can.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Dec 2004 @ 11:38am

    Why not use mail-order laws here?

    So what are the laws reguarding mail-order and phone-order business?
    Is there any good reason to not apply these laws to online orders?

    Of course, if the non-online laws doesn't make sense...

    -cmh

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Hero, 7 Dec 2004 @ 2:02pm

    Re: Why not use mail-order laws here?

    "So what are the laws reguarding mail-order and phone-order business?
    Is there any good reason to not apply these laws to online orders?"
    Oh, haven't you heard? The "internet" makes everyting "different" and so all new rules are needed.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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