Running online businesses in India require
compliance with e-commerce
laws and regulations of India. There are many techno legal
issues of online business in India that must be complied
with before an online store or platform is opened. The exact nature
of such legal compliances depends upon the nature of online business.
Surprisingly, the e-commerce
compliances in India are really bad and Indian government
and various regulatory bodies have not taken any action in this
regard so far. For example, cyber
law due diligence, Internet
intermediary liability and cyber
due diligence for Indian companies are some of the
compulsory legal issues that have been ignored by almost all
e-commerce players of India.
According to India’s leading e-commerce law firm
Perry4Law,
the most vulnerable categories that have opened their online shops
pertain to online
pharmacies, online
gambling and gaming, electronics, etc. These e-commerce
portals are not at all complying with the respective laws of these
segments.
Even the Indian government is lax in implementing
the regulatory and compliance requirements against these illegal
online pharmacies, gambling portals and other similar
e-commerce platforms.
In this entire mess a question that requires urgent
answer is whether
online gambling and betting is legal in India? According
to Perry4Law, the golden rule for deciding whether online gambling in
India is legal or not has to be judged by many factors that depends
upon the facts and circumstances of each case and upon state to
state. There are many states in India where gambling is legal and few
where even online gambling and betting is legal. However, there are
some states like Mumbai where online gambling is expressly prohibited
and made a punishable offense. So it depends upon the state where you
wish to carry the online gambling and betting business.
Then there is the rule of skills versus chance as
laid down by the courts of India. As a general rule, where the game
involves application of skill on the part of the player and the
element of chance is minimal, the activity would be considered to be
a game and not an act of gambling. However, the applicability of this
test of skill versus chance may not be applicable to online or
Internet games, betting and gambling as various judicial decisions
pertaining to different sets of facts and circumstances and can be
distinguished easily in subsequent litigations.
Finally, economic and taxation legislations like tax
laws of India, anti money laundering laws, etc are also involved
while operating online casinos, online gambling and betting and
online gamming platforms. The provisions of these economic
legislations are very stringent in nature and can cause great
detriment to the owner or operator of the online casino, gambling and
betting website.
Perry4Law recommends that to be on a safer side, it
is better to comply with various techno legal laws of India while
opening an online gambling, gaming and betting platform rather than
facing the punitive provisions of Indian laws.
Source: Techno Legal Thoughts.
