About Jonas M. Grant, Esq. Expertise I can help with preliminary questions related to incorporation (S and C corps), LLC formation, and business entities in general. Additionally, contract law, entertainment, Internet, and intellectual property law (copyright / trademark, no patents).
Experience I am an attorney licensed in California and Illinois, with a Los Angeles business and entertainment law practice devoted to serving the needs of entrepreneurs, small businesses and start-ups, creative professionals, and the Internet and entertainment industries.
Bar Admissions California - Active Member in Good Standing, No Record of Discipline
Illinois - Active Member in Good Standing, No Record of Discipline
Education/Credentials JD/MBA, Indiana University School of Law / Kelley Graduate School of Business, Bloomington, Indiana; BA, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.
Partial List of Legal Services Offered S corporation counseling and formation nationwide C corporation counseling and formation nationwide LLC (Limited Liability Company) counseling and formation nationwide
LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) counseling and formation nationwide
Corporation, LLC, and LLP dissolution and winding up nationwide
State & federal trademark and service mark filings and advice
Internet domain name disputes Copyright filings and advice
Custom-drafted contracts and reusable templates
NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreements) and other employment agreements
Contract/deal negotiation and dispute resolution
Website privacy policies, user agreements, legal notices Entertainment law services
I live in New York and I own and operate an online business. Presently I am attempting to sell the business to an interested party. My business sells hard goods and is not subscription-based (example: an online dating site).
I have a customer base of about 2000 individuals. The person I'm selling the business to wants to buy the customer base as well. The Privacy Statement on my web site explicitly states that I will not sell any of my customer's information to any third parties.
If I do sell my web site with its customer base, will I be violating any law? If selling the business, do I have an obligation to sell the client base? Again, the web site isn't subscription-based where a person has to subscribe to my site in order to do business with me. If it were, I understand why I would have to sell it.
My customers' information consists of personal information such as names, addresses, and phone #s and financial information such as credit card #s and bank accounts. If I were to sell the customer base, do I have to sell their financial information as well. I'm cautious with this as I don't want to compromise my client's financial information and have it subject to fraud.
Thanks for your help. If you need any more detailed information, please let me know.
Regards,
*****Jay
Answer If your Privacy Policy was properly drafted by an attorney, you will have reserved the right to modify it from time to time, with little or perhaps no specific notice to your users required. You can then modify it to provide for the sale, notify your users as necessary, and include the users who have not opted out of this under the new privacy policy.
To do otherwise, you are probably at least violating a contract with your users, and possibly also violating additional federal or New York state law.
I would not sell credit card or bank information, as there is no legitimate reason to pass this along, unless your site offers to "save" credit card or bank info. for future purchases. If it has always asked for this info. anew each purchase, then there is no reason to pass it along. If you are selling this info., your privacy policy should also be modified to specify this, as well.
