Is it legal to deny new orders or block orders from high risk countries?

[Scadobop]

If you operate a US registered business can you legally deny new orders that come from countries that are generally high risk and publish publicly that orders from these places will not be processed? Or do you have to let them place the order and deny them based on other criteria? Or do you have to accept them if they pass checks? Has there been any 'discrimination' cases made against hosting companies who have done this?

 

[MannDude]

Good question, though I don't think you would really have anything to worry about.

If denying orders strictly from particular countries it's best that your website not even be available for them to access. I do not personally find it morally or ethically wrong, I think businesses should be able to decide who and who not to do business with so in that regards I think you have the right to choose as well, but I am not a lawyer so I really do not know.

I can't think of any cases in the industry where discrimination was claimed and fought against. If you deny an order from Vietnam, for example, it's unlikely they're going to go through the hassle to file any sort of formal legal complaint and I have no idea what that would even consist of if they wanted to. It'd probably be too costly and too much effort to pursue.

But really, I'd just have your website unavailable for those countries or display some sort of custom page that just indicates your site is either unavailable in that region, under construction, or even showcase an error page of sorts so they're not as bothered by the unavailability.

 

[Leyton]

Obligatory "IANAL", and note that I'm not particularly well versed in US law (as I'm not a US citizen), but, I assume that most hosts would have a clause in their terms that states "risky" orders would be cancelled/void - and further a clause that allows the company to refuse service at their discretion.

It's worth noting that businesses can discriminate LGBT people in the US, meaning that they can refuse service to someone because of their sexual orientation. (http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/26/news/companies/lgbt-discrimination/)

So, I would assume that given the above two points, most people would be on weak ground to build a discrimination case against a company in the states.

 

[DomainBop]

You can refuse business from any country with the exception of one country if you are a US company but under a US law passed by Congress in 1977, US companies are subject to criminal penalties of up to $50,000, and/or imprisonment of up to 5 years,  if they participate in a boycott of one specific country in the middle east (US companies may freely participate in boycotts of the other 192 countries on the planet however).

details: http://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac

 

[KuJoe]

Every US anti-discrimination law I've ever read only applied to US citizens. If you want to get technical, the hosting provider is not the one preventing the user from ordering since they are utilizing a 3rd party to determine eligibility of service in regards to high risk countries.

 

[Tyler]

Everyone else has made some great points, so I'm just going to leave this.

Has there been any 'discrimination' cases made against hosting companies who have done this?

I highly doubt that someone from a high-risk country is going to spend the money on an international lawsuit for a hosting service valued at less than $100. Then again, maybe LowEnd has just gotten that crazy.

 

[Licensecart]

I believe you can but you need to state it in your terms and conditions.

 

[sleddog]

If you operate a US registered business can you legally deny new orders that come from countries that are generally high risk and publish publicly that orders from these places will not be processed?

Of course you can! E-commerce sites do this all this time. I live in Canada, and many large, established US shopping sites won't do business with me.

There's no US law that says, "US businesses must accept clients from all countries." A business is free to define who they do and don't do business with -- provided they don't contravene laws of their own country. Does your local bank accept loan applications from all foriegn countries? I doubt it.

 

[Scadobop]

Thank you everyone. Was not certain. In a past job I know there was issues with customers that seemed to come from parts of the world that I do not want to cater to. It's not really anything personal but it will be easier as a small business to just block orders entirely. I will see about blocking or directing traffic to a different landing page so they do not even see order forms or normal website content as well.

 

[Tyler]

Thank you everyone. Was not certain. In a past job I know there was issues with customers that seemed to come from parts of the world that I do not want to cater to. It's not really anything personal but it will be easier as a small business to just block orders entirely. I will see about blocking or directing traffic to a different landing page so they do not even see order forms or normal website content as well.

I'm guessing that this is for a hosting company based the fact that the thread is in the Operating a VPS Business section.


Might I suggest you take a look at this - https://www.aspnix.com/whmcs-modules-development/geoip-order-blocking-addon-for-whmcs/


I haven't used it before myself, but I've heard pretty good things

 

[Profuse-Jim]

You can always ask them to provide ID scans and they'll usually cancel their order then.

 

[drmike]

Office of Antiboycott Compliance (OAC)

The Bureau is charged with administering and enforcing the Antiboycott Laws under the Export Administration Act. Those laws discourage, and in some circumstances, prohibit U.S. companies from furthering or supporting the boycott of Israel sponsored by the Arab League, and certain other countries, including complying with certain requests for information designed to verify compliance with the boycott. Compliance with such requests may be prohibited by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and may be reportable to the Bureau.

 

Pieces of garbage.  Oh can't have a position in business that reflects ones morality or view on world events without being called names.  They tried to make boycotts illegal.  Can't make such insanity up.  But US companies can boycott their own government... cause that makes sense.

 

But it isn't so bad:

https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/enforcement/oac/7-enforcement/578-examples-of-boycott-requests

 

The list of other countries as examples in there include Bahrain, Bangladesh, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, and Yemen.  

 

Unsure why Bangladesh is riding there with the Middle East sketch list....

 

And people have actually been fined over this trash, in recent times:

"A Missouri company has been fined $6,000 for not reporting a customer’s question to the federal government. The question that’s punished by law is: Are any of these products made in Israel, or made of Israeli materials?"

 

Source: http://ariwatch.com/Links/CompanyFined6000.htm