Restricted purchase of regulated items over a network

摘要

A technique is disclosed for implementing electronic commerce transactions via a data network. A regulated item selected by a customer is identified. The regulated item may correspond to an item which satisfies predetermined criteria, indicating that the regulated item is prohibited from being purchased by the customer. Action is then taken to prohibit the purchase of the selected item, via the data network, by the customer. According to one embodiment, the action taken to prohibit the purchase of the regulated item is automatically implemented at a server system configured to implement electronic commerce transactions between an on-line merchant and the customer. According to a specific implementation, the predetermined criteria correspond to regulations which restrict sales of the regulated items to persons in a particular jurisdiction based upon certain criteria such as, for example, time of day, day of week, age of the customer, type of product being sold, etc.

主权项

1. A system for implementing electronic commerce transactions via a data network, said system comprising:
at least one CPU; and a memory; and said system being configured to:
provide an online store for products that can be purchased online, at least a portion of the products being regulated products;receive interactions from a customer with regard to the online store to create an online order for one or more of the products;receive a requested delivery location for the online order from the customer, the requested delivery location includes a state;determine whether the online order includes at least one regulated product; anddetermine, when it is determined that the online order includes at least one regulated product, whether the requested delivery location is permitted based on at least one regulation associated with the at least one regulated product, the at least one regulated product pertaining to an alcohol product, and the at least one regulation serving to restrict sale or delivery of at least alcohol products, wherein the at least one regulation used to determine whether the requested delivery location is permitted depends on at least the state of the requested delivery location, wherein said system is configured to inform the customer that delivery of the online order, due to the at least one regulated product, is subject to at least one restriction, and wherein when it is determined that the at least one regulation prohibits delivery of the at least one regulated product at the requested delivery location, said system is configured to (i) allow removal of the at least one regulated product from the online order and continue with the requested delivery location, and (ii) allow the customer to designate another delivery location.