Avoiding Breaking Laws And Regulations In Australian Online Liquor Industry

Potential Issues

Discuss About The Avoiding Breaking The Laws And Regulations?

From the last assessment, it can be found that online liquor industry in Australia can offer significant growth opportunities to the organizations. The past research shows that growth rate in the industry is very high. There are very few competitors in the online liquor industry in Australia. After analyzing the industry strategically, here is the discussion about different issues, which this industry may face in today’s business environment. This report includes various issues, which the organization may face online liquor business in Australia. It includes security and fraud issues, which this e-business might be exposed to. Further, it includes a mitigation plan for countering these fraud and security issues, which may impact the online liquor business. Moreover, it consists of potential legal and ethical issues, which can be encountered by e-business. In order to address these issues, organizations may choose some strategies and overcome these issues. The players in the industry should adopt and implement some effective strategies to deal with these issues.

In each industry, companies may face some issues related to ethical and legal contexts. Each country deals with these issues differently. There are various challenges, which are faced by the beer and wine distributors on regular basis. The Australian liquor industry is in the infancy phase and it is in the developing phase. But there are very few competitors in the industry, so it will be beneficial for the company to start this e-business. The company is using different modes for this e-business, like; E-mail marketing, mobile marketing, social media marketing and customer profiling. However, this is an e-commerce business, so company may face security and fraud issues (Callinan, Room and Livingston, 2014). This e-business is confronting some specific security, fraud, ethical and legal problems, which are stated below;

Whether it is offline or online liquor business, there may be some security and fraud issues in the business operations. These issues may be related to the web-site hacking, information and data hacking and other issues related to the theft of significant information (Callinan & Ferris, 2012). Each and every organization in the industry needs to consider these issues to operate the business operations effectively. Security and fraud issues in online-liquor industry are stated below;

Web-application attacks are the most common issues, which are accounted for 40% of the data breaches in liquor industry. These attacks are the major results of the employees on internet, who are surfing the site with the malware or virus. In the online liquor business, when the employees click on any program, it infects the whole system. It can cause breach to the system. The alcoholic need to be very careful, not only to ignore the email tricks, but they want to handle the card payments (Crowell, 2017).

Security Issues and Fraud Issues

Apart from this, POS intrusion is another reason of data breaches. There may be online transactions and sales, which can be refused by the hacks, which disturb the operations and direct to the business loss. These web-based attacks can contaminate the computer system of liquor company with encrypt data and ransom ware.

Data hacking is another security issue, which may impact the business of organization in online liquor industry in Australia. There may be some hackers, which can hack the material information and data of the company. The hackers will infect the system of brewery and encrypt the information. After hacking the data, the hackers can claim a payment for getting encryption keys. Without having this data, the liquor company will not have access to information. The company needs to pay a ransom and large amount of money to overcome the issue (Donovan, Donovan, Howat & Weller, 2017).

In the online business, the company may face the issues related to the theft of confidential information. In the online liquor business, if the customers make online payment, then there may be chances that their confidential information can be stolen. Intermediate people can steal the details of their debit and credit cards of customers. In the process of online payment, the companies need to ensure that all the information of customers should be kept confidential.

As the organization is going to start e-business in liquor industry, so company will face many expenditures on purchasing copyrights and patents. It is essential so that other competitors cannot copy the products and sell the similar products through their website. In the liquor industry, competitors try to steal the taste and concept of similar brand of beer and other alcoholic beverages (Howard, 2014).  

In the online business, all the information will be stored and accessed by the internal persons of the company, i.e. employees of the company. They have authorized access to the material information of the company and customers. There may be the situations that these employees can steal the data and leak that data publicly. Thus, the organization may face the issues related to leakage of data and information by internal resources (Independent Brewers Association, 2017 2017).

Fraud techniques are continuously increasing and there are so many cases of information or data breaches, which are reported every day. For resolving these security and fraud issues, the companies in online liquor industry need to create a mitigation plan. It will assist the organization to overcome the above-mentioned issues. This mitigation plan should include effective strategies, which can be adopted and implemented by the company in online liquor industry. The mitigation plan for this organization is stated below;

Mitigation Plan

In online liquor industry, the company should provide separate log-in details to the employees. When they share a common point-of-sale system (POS), which can be difficult to identify the reason behind fraud issue. To resolve this issue, the company should assign separate details and restrict them to share their details to one another (Chitrangda, 2014). By using this way, each and every transaction will be connected to an individual and overcome the confusion.

Along with this, one more precaution is to set up the POS to automatically sign out when, they do not use the system for a longer time. It will force the workers and employees to authenticate themselves regularly and make the POS less exposed to unauthorized access.

It is the responsibility of business owner or top management to educate the employees about the computer security. They should be updated about the computer security issues. Company should educate the employees and involve them in day-to-day operations. By this, they will be able to rapidly react and report any doubtful activity. The company should train the employees as they are engaged in a controlled and controversial business, i.e. sale of liquor and alcoholic beverages. There should be a training and development program, in which employees can learn about that how they can spot any fake debit or credit card (Morgan, 2012).

Covering the order IDs and account numbers in all mail and utilizing the encrypted email for private and confidential information safeguards the accounts from hackers. In addition, the company can use some fraud prevention measures, like; creating awareness about latest trends of fraud in the organization, authentications for the payment transactions etc. There will be a need of protecting the computer system from viruses and malware (Perron, 2012). It can impact the data and information, which is stored in the system.

The online liquor business may face the issues related to insecure transactions, like; unauthorized use of credit and debit cards. The cards can be used by other people, like; youth and minors can use the cards of their parents and make the payment for ordering the alcoholic beverages from the website (Peltier, 2013). So, the company should secure the transaction by verifying the transaction. The transaction should be linked with the mobile number and a One Time Password (OTP) should be sent at the time of payment with credit and debit cards.

Furthermore, the company can adopt and execute the internal control program to protect the assets and ensure the reliability of its accounting and financial records and detect the fraud related to the theft of secret information. In the process of internal control, segregation of duties and responsibilities is a significant element, which can decrease the issues and risk of fraud in the e-business. For example, in an online transaction, there should be different person for different works. Like; one employee should take the order for beer and another should tail the cash registers. Moreover, another one should prepare the deposit slip. It can assist in disclosing the inconsistencies in order process.

By implementing this mitigation plan, company can resolve the issues related to security and fraud in online liquor industry. It is very important to handle the issues effectively.

As the company is engaging in the online business, so it may confront the issues related to the ethics and code of conduct. Generally, the firms in online business avoid the ethical factors and code of conduct. It may impact the business of the company. In addition, organizations need to look at legal issues (Richardson, 2012). These issues are related to compliance of laws and regulations, which are imposed on respective industry. It may affect the growth and operations of the business.

Companies in the online liquor industry obviously wish to sell maximum products as much as possible, and for this advertising is the best to increase the consumption of any product. As a producer of restricted and controlled goods, the organization in this sector has the responsibility to the community and society to restrict disclosure of products to some specific groups. In this context, the business may face the issues related to media ethics (Bulgurcu, Cavusoglu and Benbasat, 2010). The company needs to consider whether the advertisement is ethical. The company will have to consider some ethical questions, which are stated below;

• Are the advertisements claims truthful?
• Is the ad ethically and socially responsible?
• Is the claim of products authentic one?

If the company does not follow these questions, then it may lead to the ethical dilemmas. Answering to these questions offers a foundation that an advertisement of products is ethical, especially targeted at controlled and controversial products and services, like; alcoholic beverages and liquor.

The alcohol and beverage industry in Australia is under too much pressure because of ever-changing regulatory and competitive business environment. The organizations in this industry generally face legal challenges, which affect all the areas of business, from products and processes to brand and market coverage. Australia has tight laws and regulations on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages (Schwalbe, 2015). Non-compliance of these laws and regulations can generate issues for companies in liquor industry. This industry is highly regulated and taxed in Australia. It is struggling with different taxes and lack of regularity in regulations, which are diversifying for different states.

The online liquor industry may face the issues in the form of direct advertising. There are so many states in Australia, where direct advertising of alcoholic beverages is totally banned. In the online business, there may be publicity of the products. It affects the youth and minors adversely. In the country, the laws and regulations are different in different parts of the country, so companies need to play smartly in promoting and advertising the beer and other alcoholic beverages in Australia. It can affect the company’s business in this industry (Richardson, 2012).

When it comes to any online business, they often avoid practicing corporate social responsibility. It may impact all the social contexts, like; environmental sustainability, employee engagement and community engagement. Environment sustainability includes the impact of beer plant and factory outlets on environment. The company needs to consider the substances, which are used to make the products, like; water, grains, gasoline, glass etc. Community may also have some adverse impact on the community (Szolnoki, Thach and Kolb, 2016). It consists of negative effects with alcoholic beverages, like; underage drinking, alcohol positioning and drunk drivers. It affects the image of company in context of corporate social responsibility.                             

In today’s modern era, people are actively engaged in using internet and it includes most of the population from youth and minor segment. In online liquor business, there may be possibility that minors can place the order for purchasing the alcoholic beverages. In the liquor industry, it is illegal to serve alcohol to minor people (Turban et al, 2015). This is one of the major issues in e-business of alcoholic beverages. According the Liquor Act, it is a criminal offence to supply alcoholic beverages to the minor or age under 18 years. So, the company should use some restrictive measures, so that minors cannot order the beer or other alcoholic products using their mobile phone internet.

Above paragraph of the report indicates that company in online liquor industry may confront various ethical and legal issues. These issues may affect the business of the company. There is a need to develop some strategies to address these issues in Australia. The processes and concepts to resolve the issues are given below;

To resolve the ethical and legal issues, it is significant to engage the community in the practices. The community engagement practices can be used to restrict the adverse impacts by offering the education, services, volunteering, corporate giving and charity. The company should implement a promotion campaign for to restrict the consumption of alcohol for minor and drunk drivers.

It is one of the major concepts that can be used by an organization to solve the issues. The major objective of employee engagement is to inspire the employees by engaging them to the positive effects, which brewery makes on the society in Australia (Vrellas and Tsiotras, 2015). In addition, the business should educate the employees about the ethics, code of conduct and other policies, so each and every employee can be aware about the influences of fraudulent activities. If the employees will understand the consequences of their fraudulent actions, then they will be less likely to engage in fraudulent activities.

The consumption of liquor is banned for minor people, so company should develop the website that cannot be accessed by the under 18 people. There should be verification according to the age factor. The alcoholic beverages are most controversial and controlled products, so the organization should create the website in a manner, so youth and minors cannot order the liquor online (Howard, 2014). In the offline business of liquor, shopkeeper can deny minors, but it cannot be possible in online business. So, there should be a verification process on the website.

When it comes to resolve the legal and ethical issues in e-commerce business, the businesses speck about some specific things, like; the company should avoid breaking the laws and regulations, which are imposed on that business. In addition, it should avoid the actions, which may result in civil law cases against organization and its business operations. There are so many actions, which are bad for the company’s brand image in liquor industry, the organizations needs to avoid those actions. Implementation of moral and ethical standards to the e-business has direct impact on the online business (Turban et al, 2015). It affects the brand image and sales of company in Australian liquor industry. Moreover, the liquor company should emphasize on the advertising principles related to liquor industry. It should not use direct advertising for liquor products. Implementation of ethical and legal practices is very essential for employees, customers, company, business and community.

Thus, these are major practices and concepts, which can be adopted by an organization to address the ethical and legal issues in the online liquor industry in Australia.

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Australian liquor industry is in the developing stage. The company can introduce the web-based sales of alcoholic beverages in the industry. It will definitely experience growth and development in the Australian liquor industry by addressing the associated issues. Before introducing the business, the company should analyze all the related issues, like; security and fraud issues. The above report includes a mitigation plan for dealing with these issues. By following this plan, the company can resolve the security and fraud issues, which are very common in an e-commerce business. Furthermore, it discusses about the ethical and legal issues, which a liquor company may face in web-based sales of alcoholic beverages. The company should implement some specific strategies to overcome these issues. It will assist the respective organization to grow in online liquor industry in Australia.

References

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