Are You Legal? New Internet Legislation Introduced on 1st Jan 2007
New regulations from the European Union came into force on 1st January 2007.
The regulations make it compulsory for all companies and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) to include certain information on their websites and in electronic communications. The required information includes:
• The company’s name (both the registered name and trading name)
• Company registration number
• Place of registration
• Registered office address
This is in addition to the existing requirements for commercial websites to display trading address, contact telephone number, terms of service and privacy policy.
Companies are not required to place the information on every page of their websites.
We recommend that you create a dedicated web page that provides all of the required information and ensure that the page is clearly visible to website users.
It is likely that many companies will already have such a web page in place, in which case the details provided will simply need to be checked for compliance.
The new information requirements also apply to all electronic communications, such as invoices and online order forms, not just emails.
Failure to comply with the new disclosure obligations could result in a fine.
It is a simple change so it’s worth making it now to avoid getting a visit from the red tape police.