I keep on hearing learned lawyers giving speeches about the Protection of Private Information Act (POPIA), and saying that this law is unique in Africa. There is a new tool from UNCTAD which charts all relevant legislation for ecommerce (https://unctad.org/en/Pages/DTL/STI_and_ICTs/ICT4D-Legislation/eCom-Global-Legislation.aspx) including data privacy laws which are to be found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad,…

According to Amazon’s most recent company report, its shipping costs were $9 billion in the last quarter – a 23% increase from the previous quarter, but shows just how much customers value Amazon Prime’s free shipping options. Amazon has already taken some steps to build a delivery infrastructure to supplement its partners (the 3Ps –…

The services industries in Africa are a major component of the Continent’s economy. In 2016, about 55% of Africa’s GDP was generated by services. The share of services in Africa’s trade reached 22% in 2016, following a steep increase and catching up process to the global average of 24%. But despite these figures, in 2017,…

Sarah Carrol, the author of the enormously successful ecommerce book, Grow Global (the 2nd highest sales for a business book in 2018), has published a list of the top 10 most common website mistakes she has seen in January 2019.  This is her “World Class technical checklist” : Not looking at Google Analytics Not setting up…

On 28 January, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) adopted its final report on the Omnibus proposal. The proposal is one part of legislative package aimed at modernising EU consumer laws (named the ‘New Deal for Consumers’) – the other focusing on creating a system of representative action lawsuits against companies infringing consumer law. The Omnibus proposal covers…

Google was fined over a “lack of transparency, inadequate information and lack of valid consent regarding ads personalisation”. The CNIL also said that it had not “sufficiently informed” users about how user data was being used to personalise advertising. In a statement, Google said it was considering whether or not to appeal the ruling. The…