There are many legal issues surrounding businesses. With the pandemic still terrorizing the whole world, many found legal issues to be the least of their worries. Besides, business survival is the single most important thing during the crisis. The only problem is, taking legal issues for granted can put your brand at greater risk. If you want to ensure business continuity in a time of the crisis, then you will want to mitigate the following legal risks.
Public Health Concerns
Employee’s and consumer’s health and well-being is the number one concern during a pandemic. You may be taking the right steps to make sure your business stays open. You may also be trying to implement and abide by new government rules. But things are not that easy in the pandemic world.
Telling employees who are more at-risk to contracting the virus to either stay home or keep working can have certain implications. Know that you can face discrimination claims if you don’t explain your reasoning behind laying off some workers and for deciding not to bring them back on board. On the other hand, customers and employees alike can file cases if you fail to do your part in protecting them during the pandemic.
Cyberattacks
Different kinds of cyberattacks are putting businesses in tricky situations. Some hackers use ransomware to hold business data hostage until you pay them a ransom. Others do phishing schemes to make sensitive business data open for the public. Some steal data like credit card details for their personal gain. Others hack computers to damage business networks and ruin consumer trust.
According to the Interpol, hackers are on it at an alarming rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is since more people, especially businesses are spending more time online. Many businesses are investing more in digital marketing and made their teams transition to remote working. Even if this is the case, only a few brands are making sure to take cyber defense seriously.
Cyberattacks can cause your business serious harm. People will lose trust in your business if you fail to safeguard their details. You can lose your business reputation in an instant and even face serious legal repercussions. Avoid this by investing in the right policies, procedures, tools, and third-party services such as ServiceNow Security operations.
Insurance Coverage Issues
The pandemic caused a major shift in business insurance needs. If before, your small business only needs basic insurance policy, now the time has come to reevaluate your insurance policy so you can use it to your advantage during the pandemic. Some entrepreneurs already filed for claims in an attempt to cover for business losses. Others do this to recover after having to cease their operations or permanently shut their doors down. Only when they try to make a business interruption claim did they realize their policies won’t cover for pandemic losses.
One can expect more business interruptions to occur in the future. Now is the best time to review your insurance, pay attention to your customer and employee’s needs, and increase your cyber defense. This way, you can avoid possible legal issues that many businesses are already facing during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
