Legislative and Regulatory Frameworks

The assignment provided is an in-depth analysis of legislative and regulatory frameworks that affect multinational companies. It emphasizes the importance of complying with these laws and regulations to maintain a good reputation in industry. The document cites various sources, including books, journals, and online resources, to support its findings. It also provides specific examples and case studies to illustrate key points. Overall, the assignment offers valuable insights into the complexities of legislative and regulatory frameworks that impact business operations and outcomes.

LEGAL ASPECTS OF
INTERNATIONAL
BUSINESS AND
ENTERPRISE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Verizon Communications Inc. Profile....................................................................................1
2. Identifying any legislative regulatory frameworks affecting Verizon Communication Inc
MNC and its impact on them......................................................................................................2
3. Identifying any treaties, conventions or agreements which impacts MNC in
telecommunication business in Australia....................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
It is very important for any organization to have all the legal aspects properly followed
and regulated by them in order to work effectively. For international business and enterprise, it
plays an essential part in increasing their business activities. Present report will talk about
Verizon Communications Inc. which is a telecommunication company in America and has its
franchise in different countries such as Australia. This report will study about Australia's Verizon
Communications Inc. and various laws and regulations which has a huge impact on their
business. It will explain about legislative regulatory frameworks affecting this company. This
will also identify treaties, conventions or agreements that has huge impact on their products and
services of this company in Australia.
MAIN BODY
1. Verizon Communications Inc. Profile
Verizon Communications Inc. is a multinational company (MNC) which is operating
their business in telecommunication and mass media sectors. Formerly it was known as Bell
Atlantic Corporation (1983–2000). It was founded in 7th October in 1983 and is headquartered
in 1095 Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New York, United States. Lowell McAdam is
the present chairman and Hans Vestaburg is the CEO of this company. The basic facility which
this company provides is the national and international telecommunications, and IT services to
business and government customers (Verizon Annual Report 2012, 2012).
 The industry the company operates: It operates in America, United States.
 Number of staff in Australia: It has approx. 43,000 employees working in the
Australia.
 Number of staff globally: It has globally around 155,400 employees working with
them till 2017.
 Location of global headquarters: Avenue of the Americas, New York City, New
York, United States.
There are various activities which is performed by the company, which includes,
marketing, sale, construction, installation, integration, maintenance, and running of networks
(MacGregor, Doyle and McEachern, 2015). Verizon Australia Pty Limited was formerly known
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as MCI Worldcom Australia Pty Limited and changed its name to Verizon Australia Pty Limited
on May 19, 2006. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Sydney, Australia.
Verizon Australia Pty Limited operates as a subsidiary of Verizon Communications Singapore
Pte. Ltd.
2. Identifying any legislative regulatory frameworks affecting Verizon Communication Inc MNC
and its impact on them
It is very important to have good knowledge of all the legislative regulatory frameworks
which can have a huge impact on the multinational companies’ business activities in market
(Telecommunications - Laws, Regulations and Licenses, 2018). There are various laws and
regulations which are mandatory to implement in the company which is very important for them,
such as,
 Australian Intellectual Property laws: This is very important regulation which has to
be maintained by them very carefully as it will help them in securing their data from
being misused by others. This law includes patent protection, trade mark protection,
registering a domain name, design security, and copyright protection laws in Australia.
All this regulation plays a very important role in the company (Picciotto, 2017). This
Intellectual Property laws helps the organization to protect their products and services
and make them unique from other items that are present in the market already by making
a copyright of their range.
 Australian Business and Environment laws: These laws are basically built to protect
the company and its employees working with them. This regulation generally includes
laws, such as, information on competition and consumer laws, product liability
regulation, environmental legislation, and privacy laws in Australia. Following all the
laws and regulation very carefully can help them in enhancing their overall performance.
 Australian Export and Import laws: This law basically helps in maintaining the legal
regulations in the process of export and import of their services in different countries
(Whincop, 2017). It consists of information on free trade agreements (FTAs), tariffs and
duties, and import regulations in Australia. This has to managed properly as it includes
rules and regulations of other countries as well as they are exporting their services to
them.
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Other regulatory frameworks which has a huge impact on the business of Verizon
Communication Inc. includes,
 The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which has the
responsibility for market integrity and consumer protection across the financial system.
 The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which has the responsibility for monetary policy,
overall financial system stability and regulation of the payment system.
 The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which has responsibility for
prudential supervision for such type of multinational companies.
There are various laws and regulations which can affect the proper functioning of this
multinational company which can have a huge impact on their business. Verizon Communication
Inc. has to make sure that they are implementing all the necessary frameworks successfully in
their organization in order to achieve their targets and objectives (Kolk, 2016). These laws can
include,
 The Telecommunication Act 1997: The Telecommunications Act regulates the activities
of a number of participants in the telecommunication industry, including ‘carriers’ and
‘carriage service providers’. It is also very essential for Verizon Communication Inc. as it
can help them in operating their business effectively. As per the statutory definitions,
carriers are those who has a 'carrier license' which is required before the use of any
infrastructure to carry out communication activity (Telecommunications Act, 2018.). And
'carriage service providers' are those who is making the use of these infrastructures for
their use. This act also has a huge impact on Verizon Communication Inc, such as, it
helps in regulating the use and disclose of information which is being obtained by the
certain bodies during the process of their supply of its telecommunication services. It can
be taken as an offense to use or disclose information or a document related to their
customers or employees. There are various sub sections in this law which has different
regulations, such as, Part 6 of the Telecommunications Act deals with the development of
industry codes and standards for particular industry activities (Kolk, 2016). For example,
local companies, are subject to 30 per cent corporate tax.
 The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) Act 2005: It is an
Australian Government statutory authority which works with communication portfolio.
This law was formed in 1 July 2005 with merging Australian Broadcasting Authority and
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the Australian Communications Authority. This Act is responsible for ensuring that
media and communication system is working correctly in Australia. The Australian
Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) works according to the different
legislative laws, regulations, standards and codes of practice (Australian Communications
and Media Authority Act 2005, 2018). Areas which comes under this act are,
communications infrastructure, content, consumer and citizen, corporate and research,
and legal services. These can have a huge impact on the business activity of Verizon
Communication Inc. as it will check and monitor all the legal aspects of the organization.
They have to properly implement all the legal laws and regulations that are mandatory for
them to apply in their system. Working in a telecommunication industry it is very
important to follow these norms. The Australian Communications & Media Authority
(ACMA) Act 2005, as it will check whether Verizon Communication Inc. is working as
per the regulation made by them or not (Zainan and et.al., 2017).
 The Spam Act 2003: The Spam Act 2003 (Cth), is an act which is passed by Australian
Parliament in 2003 which helps in regulating commercial e-mail and other types of
commercial electronic messages. With the help of such acts, it is possible to protect the
company from spam especially e-mail spam and some types of phone spam, as well as e-
mail address harvesting. Some key points which are included in this act includes, all the
commercial electronic message of the company should consist of all the related
information of the organization or about the individual whoever is sending that message
(Ling and et.al., 2016). Address-harvesting software must not be supplied, acquired or
used by the organization in order to protect their information.
3. Identifying any treaties, conventions or agreements which impacts MNC in
telecommunication business in Australia
For multinational companies, it is crucial to follow all the legal aspects that are
mandatory for them as they are performing their business internationally. It is very important to
understand all the treaties, conventions or agreements which related to the telecommunication
sectors as it can impact the Verizon Communication Inc. business activities. It should be
managed very carefully by the company in order to work effectively in industry. There are
several treaties or agreements which can affect them a lot, such as,
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 Goods and services tax (GST): The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is a value added tax
(upto 10%) which is applicable on goods and services. GST is levied on most
transactions in the production process. This GST was introduced by the Howard
Government and it came into act on 1 July 2000 by replacing the previous federal sales
tax system. As per this law, all the business in Australia whose turnover is above the
minimum threshold amount which is currently approx. $75,000 per annum has to register
their name in GST list (Byrne, 2018). Whereas companies whose businesses does not
earn up to this capacity, they have a choice if they want to register their name or not in
that list. A registered business must periodically claim their Business Activity
Statements, monthly, quarterly or annually according to their requirement. Taxable
supplies include goods that are wholly present within Australia, from or to Australia or
real property in Australia. It is very important for the company to follow all the
amendments of Goods and Service Tax which is compulsory for them to follow (Drahos,
2016). There are 4 draft GST Determinations which is included in these Goods and
Service Tax (GST) in Australia. These are as follows:
 GSTD 2012/D1 Goods and services tax,
 GSTD 2012/D2 Goods and services tax,
 GSTD 2012/D3 Goods and services tax, and
 GSTD 2012/D4 Goods and services tax.
All these drafts have different rules and regulations that must be followed by Verizon
Communication in order to deliver their products and services effectively in market. There is a
huge impact of these Goods and Service Tax on telecommunication sector in Australia, for
example, this will effectively give rise in the rates from 15% to approx. 20% which can lead to
marginal increase in their products and service which has been provided to the customers
(Meath, Linnenluecke and Griffiths, 2016). The telecom sector has a number of services
including mobile wallets and upon the implementation of the GST bill, it would be a matter of
great concern to verify each and every transaction taking place. So it is very essential for Verizon
Communication Inc. to have all the knowledge related to these Goods and Service Tax (GST)
which can help them in delivering the best service in the industry.
Australian business owners of telecommunication industry assumed that consumers will
change their behavior after the implementation of the GST in their products and services but it
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does not happen. There were majority of people who were not happy with this law (Muhammad
and et.al., 2015). This is the most important factors in telecommunication sectors which has a
great impact on their business, if it has not been maintained properly by them. For
telecommunication industry GST has a huge importance as well which plays an important role in
the selling of their products and services in market. It also helped them in generating a good
revenue and earning good profit from their business. The above mentioned issues and
complexities would help telecommunication industry to make huge technological changes in
their system and accounting systems in order to maintain their work effectively (Zainan and
et.al., 2017). These issues for the telecom sector should be taken into consideration by the
Australian government while finalizing the GST law, to ensure that the same are adequately
addressed.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that it is very essential for all legal aspects in
international business and enterprise as it can affect their business activity a lot. It has been
concluded that various laws and regulations that are mandatory for telecommunication industry
has direct as well as significant effect on business operation of an organization. It can be
summarized from study that laws and regulation has direct effect on the business activities of an
organization if they do not follow it properly. It is recommended to Verizon Communication Inc.
that they should follow all these laws and regulations. Another conclusion drawn from the
assignment is that legislative regulatory frameworks affect multinational company. It has been
recommended to an enterprise that there are the factors which has to be taken care of in order to
maintain a good reputation in industry.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Byrne, S., 2018. Intellectual property in Australia [Book Review]. Ethos: Official Publication of
the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory. (248). pp.58.
Drahos, P., 2016. A philosophy of intellectual property. Routledge.
Kolk, A., 2016. The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the
environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business. 51(1).
pp.23-34.
Ling, S.C. and et.al., 2016. Goods and Services Tax (GST) compliance among Malaysian
consumers: The influence of price, government subsidies and income inequality. Procedia
Economics and Finance. 35. pp.198-205.
MacGregor, S., Doyle, T. and McEachern, D., 2015. Environment and politics. Routledge.
Meath, C., Linnenluecke, M. and Griffiths, A., 2016. Barriers and motivators to the adoption of
energy savings measures for small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): the case of the
ClimateSmart Business Cluster program. Journal of Cleaner Production. 112. pp.3597-
3604.
Muhammad, N. and et.al., 2015. The relationship between environmental performance and
financial performance in periods of growth and contraction: evidence from Australian
publicly listed companies. Journal of Cleaner Production. 102. pp.324-332.
Picciotto, S., 2017. Rights, responsibilities and regulation of international business. In
Globalization and International Investment (pp. 177-198). Routledge.
Whincop, M. J., 2017. From bureaucracy to business enterprise: Legal and policy issues in the
transformation of government services. Routledge.
Zainan, N. and et.al., 2017. Retailers' Behavioural Factors Towards Goods and Services Tax
(Gst) Compliance: Sociological and Psychological Approach Study. Management &
Accounting Review. 16(1).
Online
Australian Communications and Media Authority Act 2005. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2005A00044>
Telecommunications - Laws, Regulations and Licenses. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/sector/telecom/laws-
regulations#australia>
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Telecommunications Act. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/71.%20Telecommunications%20Act/
telecommunications-act-1997-cth>
Verizon Annual Report 2012. 2012. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.verizon.com/about/sites/default/files/vz_ar_2012.pdf>
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