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Regulatory information a requirement for UK
websites
Every company should list its company registration
number, place of registration, and registered
office address on its website as a result of an
update to the legislation of 1985.
The information, which must be legible, should
also appear on order forms and in emails. Such
information is already required on "business
letters" but the duty is being extended to
websites, order forms and electronic documents.
The change is being made by a Statutory Instrument
that is expected to be passed to implement a
European law, the First Company Law Amendment
Directive, into UK law. According to a Department
of Trade and Industry spokesperson, the law will
take effect on 1 January 2007, one day later than
the Directive requires.
The information is likely to appear in the footer
of every email sent from a company, to avoid
having to decide whether each email amounts to a
"business letter" or not. Many companies do this
already because the term "business letters" was
thought likely to include emails even without this
new clarification.
For websites, contrary to the fears of some, the
specified information does not need to appear on
every page. Again, many websites will already list
the required information, perhaps on their "About
us" or "Legal info" pages.
The Ecommerce Regulations, passed in 2002, require
that certain information is listed on a website,
including, "where the service provider is
registered in a trade or similar register
available to the public, details of the register
in which the service provider is entered and his
registration number, or equivalent means of
identification in that register".
That has been understood as including the company
registration number and place of registration. The
Ecommerce Regulations also required a note of "the
geographic address at which the service provider
is established" – which many have taken to mean
the registered office address.
However, the wording in the Ecommerce Regulations
is ambiguous compared to the new provisions.
Further, many organisations' sites currently omit
the information, perhaps making the mistake of
thinking that the Ecommerce Regulations do not
apply to websites that do not sell online (in fact
they apply to almost all websites).
Information that must be on your website
The following is the minimum information that must
be on any company's website (from OUT-LAW's guide,
The UK's Ecommerce Regulations).
The name, geographic address and email address of
the service provider. The name of the organisation
with which the customer is contracting must be
given. This might differ from the trading name.
Any such difference should be explained – e.g. "XYZ.com
is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited."
It is
not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form
without also providing an email address and
geographic address somewhere easily accessible on
the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a
geographic address; but a registered office
address would. If the business is a company, the
registered office address must be included.
If a company, the company's registration number
should be given and, under the Companies Act, the
place of registration should be stated (e.g. "XYZ
Enterprises Limited is a company registered in
England and Wales with company number 1234567")
If the
business is a member of a trade or professional
association, membership details, including any
registration number, should be provided.
If the business has a VAT number, it should be
stated – even if the website is not being used for
e-commerce transactions.
Prices on the website must be clear and
unambiguous. Also, state whether prices are
inclusive of tax and delivery costs.
Finally, do not forget the Distance Selling
Regulations which contain other information
requirements for online businesses that sell to
consumers (B2C, as opposed to B2B, sales).
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