Web Design & SEO Articles

First of all, happy new year to all of my readers. May 2007 be more prosperous (and much better than 2006) for everyone.

But 1 January 2007 has another meaning to it if Outlaw.com's article at TheRegister.co.uk is anything to go by. Basically if your website isn't providing certain regulatory information on both your website and your email footers, you risk being in breach of the Companies Act and therefore fined.

Although this law is expected to be passed last Thursday to implement a European law, the Ecommerce Regulation passed in 2002, required this information to be listed on a service provider's website so it is easily available to the public. However, (and I feel I must stress this) now this information must be provided to all UK business websites and not just online retailers.

As stated in the Ecommerce regulation, The minimum information required under this new legislation includes:

• Name and geographic address of the service provider. If applicable, the organization name with which the customer is contracting. e.g. "XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited."


• An operable email and postal address. "Contact us" forms that can be completed online are no longer enough. P O Boxes are also unlikely to be acceptable as a postal address. For registered companies the registered office address must be included


• If your company is registered, Your company's registration number and place of registration (under the Companies Act)


• If your company is a member of any trade or professional associations, any membership details, including any registration numbers


• VAT Numbers if registered. This information must be included for non-ecommerce companies


• Prices on the website must be clear and unambiguous. Prices that are inclusive of tax and delivery costs must also be stated

With this "minimum information" also being stated in email footers, the future email correspondence will be identical to the average company letterhead. As quoted by outlaw.com:

"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."

To target both websites and emails in this legislation, is definitely a good thing as this further emphasises the difference between the spammers and the scammers who wish to appear faceless and the genuine companies that want to make a honest living.

Labels: 2007 legislation, business websites, companies act