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Does your website break the law?
In the UK and Europe there is a legal requirement for any business to publish full contact details and business registration information on their website. It’s no surprise that there are plenty of small business websites out there which do not comply with the regulations - we only put our own house in order recently when we launched our new website.
It is a year since the Companies Act of 1985 was updated to comply with European legislation, which dictates that a company’s website must state the address of their registered office, place of registration and registration number. Company websites should also comply with the Electronic Commerce Regulations which came into force in 2002. Contrary to popular belief the e-commerce directive applies to the majority of commercial websites, not just those selling online.
Summary of legal requirements
So if you have a commercial website then the minimum information you are required to publish is as follows
- The name, geographical address and email address of the business. Having a contact form is not sufficient, the full contact details of the business are required. Also the website must include the name of the organisation or person with whom the customer is entering into a contract.
- If the business is a company, then the address of its registered office must be included along with the company registration number and place of registration.
- If registered for VAT, the VAT registration number must be provided.
- If the business is a member of any trade associations or professional bodies, then details of membership including membership numbers should be given.
- Any prices which appear on the website must be clear and unambiguous. It should also be clear whether prices are inclusive of tax and delivery.
Remember these conditions do not just apply to sites selling directly from their website. If your business has an online presence, and the above conditions are not met then you could be risking a fine.
Legal issues aside, there are other benefits to a full and frank disclosure of business details on your website. Let’s face it, most customers like to know who they are dealing with, and the absence of any contact information is unlikely to inspire trust, in fact it looks downright dodgy!
Making the statutory changes should be a relatively simple job for any web designer or web development company. If your business is one of those who has yet to comply with the law then it’s time you got yourself back on the straight and narrow.
You know who you are…
Subscribe »Why Do We have A Blog?
There are several very good reasons why we have incorporated a blog into our web site. It’s relatively simple to do after all.
- A blog is great tool for quickly adding new content to a web site. We chose WordPress, and its ease of use means we are more likely to keep updating the site on a regular basis, whenever one of us has ten minutes to spare.
- Visitors like fresh content. Keeping the site updated will encourage people to come back again and again. It all helps when building an online presence and winning customer mindshare.
- Search engines like fresh content too. As long as we keep it relevant it all counts towards ratings.
- We’re creative types, and blogging is form of self-expression. When we’ve got something to say it won’t do to bottle it up.
- We’re good at what we do, and blogging about it is way of proving it to the world.
It all makes sense doesn’t it. Perhaps you should have a blog on your web site. Don’t think about it for too long though - give us a call…