Where can you get dragged into court for doing business on the internet? It depends

January 28, 2003

Web Activity Gives Plaintiff Chance for Jurisdictional Discovery

Even if an Internet Web site is both commercial and interactive, a court cannot exercise jurisdiction over its operator unless there is also proof that the company has "purposefully availed" itself of doing business in that state, a federal appeals court has ruled.

But in a key victory for plaintiffs, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also held that judges must be willing to consider the defendant's non-Internet activities "as part of the 'purposeful availment' calculus" and that sometimes a plaintiff must be given a chance to build just such a case for jurisdiction.