Articles by Lori Enos

Internet superstore Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and Fox Television are partnering to create a two-hour television special, "The Ultimate Auction," for broadcast in December. The auction will be managed by Amazon's live auction site LiveBid Among the items set to be auctioned are an autographed, handwritten copy of Clement Moore's 177 year-old poem, "A Vi...

Internet real estate company Homestore.com announced Friday that it will acquire Cendant Corporation's Internet real estate portal Move.com in an all-stock deal valued at $761 million (US$) When the deal is finalized, Move.com and its related assets -- including rental listing and apartment finder service Rent.net -- will be integrated into the Hom...

The days of American consumers avoiding sales tax by making their purchases online are numbered, if testimony given before a hearing of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) on Thursday is any indication Although the stated purpose of the SSTP is to "simplify and modernize sales and use tax administration," representatives from the National Reta...

A report released Wednesday by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) shows that 58.4 percent of online purchasers believe that online prices are as high as those offline. That percentage jumps to 75.4 percent among online users who do not shop on the Web "The UCLA Internet Report: Surveying the Digital Future," a product of four years of...

In an effort to promote public trust in Internet transactions, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and BBBOnLine unveiled the BBB Code of Online Business Practices on Tuesday According to the BBB, the code is designed to guide ethical business-to-customer (B2C) conduct in domestic and international e-commerce transactions, and is already being used as...

Although Canadians are using the Web in ever-increasing numbers, they are among the world's most cautious when it comes to actually purchasing goods and services online, according to a study released Tuesday by American Express (NYSE: AXP) "The 2000 American Express Global Consumer Internet Survey" found that 66 percent of Canadians polled plan to ...

A study released Monday by BizRate.com shows that the average online shopper abandoned two or three Web shopping carts over the last 90 days, each representing lost sales of $175 (US$) "Imagine if your local store had aisle after aisle of shopping carts filled with unclaimed goods. It's a disturbing problem, but represents the reality facing many o...

An ambitious plan to knock down e-commerce trade barriers and to create a set of international rules that ensure fair competition in the rapidly evolving e-commerce sector was unveiled Monday by U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky Speaking before the Federal Communications Bar Association in Washington, D.C., Barshefsky called for "the ad...

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has warned airlines that they must tell customers seeking the lowest fare that the best deals may only be available via the carrier's Web site The order responds to a complaint filed in 1997 by Florida attorney Donald L. Pevsner, who alleged that the airlines were illegally discriminating against non-Inte...

Amid growing concerns that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is ill-equipped to keep up with the demands of the New Economy, Internet start-up BountyQuest is offering cash rewards to individuals who can prove or disprove a company's claim to a patent Launched earlier this week by former patent attorney Charles Cella, the company is backed by Ama...

According to a survey released Friday by market research firm InsightExpress, online pharmacies are a "prescription for failure." The survey found that 93 percent of online consumers surveyed had never made a purchase from an online drugstore and that 76 percent had never visited an online drugstore site.

According to a report released Wednesday by research and consulting firm Ovum, the alternative online payment market will reach $126 billion (US$) by 2005 The Ovum study follows a report issued last month by ActivMedia Research predicting that credit cards, which now account for 98.5 percent of all online transactions, will decline to a 90 percent ...

A pair of bills introduced this week in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives would make it easier for state and federal officials to crack down on illegal sales of pharmaceuticals over the Internet The Senate bill, known as the Internet Prescription Drug Consumer Protection Act of 2000, was introduced by a bipartisan coalition of senators i...

Officials in Chicago, Illinois have filed a lawsuit to shut down Voteauction.com, a site that lets citizens auction their votes in the upcoming U.S. presidential election to the highest bidder The suit, filed by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners in Cook County Court, alleges that the site is committing a felony under state and local laws ...

A study released Wednesday by Active Research revealed that the majority of Americans would spend less online if their e-purchases were taxed The Burlingame, California research firm's survey of online shoppers found that 66 percent said that their online shopping behavior would decrease if Internet sales were taxed. More women (71 percent) than me...

Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (B&W), the third largest cigarette manufacturer in the U.S., said Monday that it has filed suit in a Manhattan federal court to overturn a New York state law banning the sale of cigarettes on the Internet The suit alleges that the law -- which makes it a crime to ship or transport cigarettes sold via mail orde...

E-tailers stand to lose up to $14.7 billion (US$) in sales this holiday season unless improvements are made in the overall online shopping experience, according to a new report by consulting firm Creative Good Based on testing at eight major e-tailers, "The Holiday 2000 Online Shopping Report" concluded that nearly half of all e-commerce customers ...

Giving the green light for Nevada residents to bet on football games and horse races using the Internet, the Nevada Gaming Board has set the stage for the first online betting sites to operate legally in the United States Under the terms of the approved proposal, San Diego, California-based Virtgame.com will supply the technology to power betting W...

With an eye toward improving its ability to monitor online music downloads, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced Thursday that it is working with other industry groups to develop a standardized system for identifying digital files of songs The new system would create the digital music equivalent of bar codes currently foun...

Although well-intentioned, the U.S. government's Internet initiatives are competing unfairly with the private e-commerce sector, according to a report released Thursday by the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) The report, "The Role of Government in a Digital Age," calls for a comprehensive review of government activities on the ...