united-states internet international european-union
Which country&#39;s laws apply to buying/selling illegal items? Buyer, seller or owner of the service?
<p>Assuming user <em>A</em> (in country <em>I</em>) sells stolen virtual accounts to the user <em>B</em> (in country <em>II</em>) on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darknet_market" rel="nofollow">darknet market</a> using service owned by user <em>C</em> (in country <em>III</em>) which is hosted on the web server (hosted in another country <em>IV</em>) . Also assuming this activity is illegal in all party's countries (not to mention communication is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_routing" rel="nofollow">onion routed</a> through several other countries), no physical postage is involved and hosting company doesn't know about illegal activity on their server.</p>

<p>Who's breaking the law, user <em>A</em> (seller), user <em>B</em> (buyer) or the owner of the illegal service - user <em>C</em> (which is in different country than his service is hosted)? Or all of them, but in different ways (different paragraphs)?</p>

<p>Based on what you've said, user A and user B are breaking the law. User C is breaking the law only if facilitating the activity is illegal in a jurisdiction that they may be prosecuted in and if no safe harbor provision applies.</p>

<p>The fact that onion routing occurs is irrelevant to the legality of the activity, though it may be relevant to questions of evidence.</p>

<p>Without more specific information, I can't write a more specific answer.</p>
