The use of Internet web sites to advertise products and services, both by companies and by individuals, has exploded over the past few years.
Companies now sell everything from books to lavish vacation packages on-line.
Recently, questions about jurisdiction have arisen when a customer accesses a company's web site from a remote location and a dispute develops between the customer and the company that posted the web site. These principles have recently been applied to constitutional inquiries for personal jurisdiction in the context of web site advertisements. While there is a slight split among the circuits, a majority of courts, including those in Virginia, hold that merely posting a web site on the Internet is insufficient to subject a company to personal jurisdiction in every location in which the web site may be accessed. However, a Connecticut court has held that posting a web site designed to reach a forum state's residents is a sufficient basis to exercise personal jurisdiction over the posting company. Inset Systems, Inc. v.