[manuelmoreale]

That’s the tricky part about an internet company. Where are they located? If a US company ships you a physical product they need to follow local laws otherwise you can’t import it. But you think in the case of a digital product then the logic is reversed?

[throwaway60722]

No, they don't need to follow the local law. I can buy whatever I want from anywhere in the world and the company doesn't need to follow anything other than the law of their home.

These are very significantly different cases:

1) a foreign customer buying

2) a foreign company selling

In the first case, the company follows their home law only. On the second case they would have to follow the local law of the customer's country too

[manuelmoreale]

That is definitely not how the world works. Import/Export laws do exist for a reason.

Your edit makes even less sense.

1) a foreign customer buying 2) a foreign company selling

Those two happen at the same time. If I’m in Australia and I’m buying something from the US I am a foreign customer (relative to the company) and the company is also a foreign company (relative to the customer)

If you want to export anything you have to follow the laws of the country you’re exporting to.

[throwaway60722]

That is definitely how the world works. Import/export laws largely do not apply when it's the customer self-importing it for their own personal use. And that can include the seller sending it to them using FedEx or whatever, still self-import.

Import/export laws mostly affect stuff that's going to be resold again, and involve local subsidiaries or contracted distributors.

The two cases I listed do not happen at the same time. Try some other, more charitable interpretation.

If I went out and bought something out of my country, the seller never tried to sell in my country and it makes no sense they would have to follow my local law.

If the seller went out and started selling (doing marketing etc) in my country, that's a different story.

[manuelmoreale]

Appreciate you taking the time to engage in the discussion but I think I’m going to stop here.

[exodust]

An example might help.

If I'm in Australia and I buy a new alarm clock from an online store in Japan, the alarm clock does not need to meet Australian standards. It's the customer's risk to take.

[AlchemistCamp]

One obvious reason is that different countries have wildly incompatible laws.

Another reason is that it is not the job of a company (or random blogger!) to worry about all laws everywhere on the planet. If it were, it would be very difficult to even discuss regionally sensitive issues around religion, territorial disputes or even ongoing pandemics.

[manuelmoreale]

How is it not a company’s job to worry about the laws of the countries they operate in?

If it’s not its job, then whose job is it then?

I’m not going to argue that it’s an easy problem to solve. Far from it. But I also think there has to be some balance otherwise a company can simply set headquarters in a country with as fewer restrictions as possible and run wild.

[AlchemistCamp]

Please don’t willfully misinterpret my words.

It is the company’s job to comply with the laws of the country they operate in and I never implied otherwise. This does not mean complying the laws of all other countries where people use the internet.

For example, if you produce online maps and you’re based in China, you’d better be rendering maps that reflect their territorial claims. If you’re based in a neighboring country with competing claims, then those same maps that comply with Chinese regulations could get you into trouble.

> ”… otherwise a company can simply set headquarters in a country with as fewer restrictions as possible”

Yes. That’s how it works. Countries compete in terms of regulatory regime and less onerous ones do indeed attract more business.