Do you show all you should on your website?

**drivetowin** · 05-01-07

Just been alerted to this via another list, but if you have a limited company, looks like you may need to update your websites and/or email footers (I know for sure we will

)

From 1st January 2007, companies in the UK must include certain regulatory information on their websites and in their email footers or they will breach the new amendment to the Companies Act and risk a fine.

Every company should list its company registration number, place of registration, and registered office address on its website. The information, which must be in legible characters, 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 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.

For websites, the specified information does not need to appear on every page but must appear somewhere on the website, i.e. on an 'About Us' page.

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 website operator. 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 registation should be stated (e.g. "XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567")

* 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.

**Elaine** · 05-01-07

I know I should go and look this up myself but

does this also include mere information websites and directories if you are a Limited Company - or does it only affect sites that are selling something - goods and services?

cheers

**drivetowin** · 05-01-07

Hi Elaine

I think it's more or less anyone (though interestingly gambling sites are excluded) - The UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has explained that it is not restricted to buying and selling online but also covers those offering online information or commercial communications (e.g. adverts) (so I assume that affects us as affiliates) or providing tools for search, access and retrieval of data. Also covered is video on demand, web hosting or operating a communications network.

It's also worth noting that a business cannot escape the terms of the Regulations by locating its servers in, say, California. The Regulations look at where a business is based, not where its equipment is based.

**John Jupp** · 05-01-07

Thanks for posting this. I'll be updating asap.

**hpops** · 05-01-07

Thanks for posting Keith - got about 5 that need updating

**mikey_freedom** · 06-01-07

Great call on alerting everyone to this Keith. It seems to have slipped by under all our radars. I didn't but I do now, hopefully. I saw a thread earlier on over at TW (the whole thing had passed me by until then) and so have had a real fun evening checking / changing each site - but pretty much finished now so just popped in here.

Just seems to be an example of ill thought out 'one size fits all' legislation that will leave a ton of small businesses breaking the law, yet without the skills 'in house' to make those small changes to their sites. It hasn't been that widely publicised has it? I'm sure this will come as news to a lot of ltd company owners who aren't displaying their co. reg or VAT number

The gambling exemption is something I hadn't seen at all, but I don't do gambling stuff so thankfully I haven't done any wasted work. A lot of my sites just had one of the pieces of information missing, or didn't state that the site was published by the company, so in the end I bit the bullet and if I hadn't got an about / contact page linked from all the others I just ended up putting all the co. blurb at the bottom of the homepage.

Wonder how much lucrative maintenance work this will generate for some web designers out there? I can pretty much guess how much spam those plain email addresses will bring in.

Anyhow, at least it's done now

**km8** · 06-01-07

Originally Posted by mikey_freedom

I can pretty much guess how much spam those plain email addresses will bring in.

I doubt very much that the regulations specify it must be a plaintext and/or clickable email address. Human-readable, yes - but not necessarily machine readable would be my guess.

**Supercod** · 06-01-07

Got to say I had no clue about this one, I do most of it on many of my website but not all of them, so looks like I will be busy updating, like I don't have enough to do.

Here is some links to back up the original post:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12...il_regulation/

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/pro...ationery.shtml

**Stuart** · 06-01-07

Thanks Keith,

Very useful...!

I have some knowledge in this area, my understanding is that any registered business even if not directly selling to the end consumer should show the companies information (reg number, VAT and registered office etc).

This has always been something that was a requirement but was not enforced - I think this is now a legal requirement - don't hold me to that.

Companies and I believe individuals should also register for the data protection act and display the registration number, especially where capturing any details (email, names, IP address etc)

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations.aspx

Regards
Stuart

**gerry180** · 08-01-07

This morning I called Companies house on the more information number for this issue. The initial contact wasn’t sure about affiliate type websites and went away to ask. They came back with the answer “the details need to be on the company’s main website?”

Has anyone else clarified whether this affects all of a Company’s affiliate sites, forums, directories or any site with an affiliate link on it?

Thanks

**uretopia** · 09-01-07

I just spoke to Companies House also.

The point they made to me regarding websites is it's really just about transparency and making it obvious to users what company they're dealing with. The way you do that is not set in stone. I asked whether it would be sufficient for every website to just say "Website from companyname" with companyname being a link back to a parent company website where all the registered company information is displayed. He agreed with me that would be fine.

**Stellar** · 09-01-07

What if you are a sole trader than therefore there is no company as such?

**IntroSites** · 10-01-07

Originally Posted by Stellar

What if you are a sole trader than therefore there is no company as such?

Id be interested in answer to that too

**Yourslice** · 10-01-07

Thanks for that i did not know about the email footer bit. Will have to update.

**smn2** · 18-01-07

This is indeed an interesting thread. I just wonder how
many limited company affiliates have a *main* site.
Do people have .ltd site, for example.

I have my contact details on most of my sites
but not my company details.

Maybe I will just create a *main* site and then
put a link to it on my other sites (but what happens
if part of my business is about not cross-linking
to all my sites?)

Anyway, a good find indeed

Steve