At the start of 2007, a piece of legislation came into force to bring the UK in line with European requirements, specifically the First Company Law Directive which controls the minimum information requirements which has to appear on company documents, including the website, as well as all written communications including e-mail.
In it, it states that businesses are expected to include details such as company registration details, company address, registration number and contact details on all company documentation including business letters, emails and of course websites.
An aide memoir from OutLaw.com gives us the details that needs to be included on the website, though not on every page thankfully:
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 registation 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.
Although they are not specifically mentioned, we can assume that these business details should also be included on our business blogs since they are effectively a special type of website. So make sure that you are covered – after all, your blog is a key element of your business communications.
Tags: Blog Information, Blogging News, Business Blog, Company Information, Legal Requirements, UK Law
January 16th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
[...] Just a quick follow-up to thispost, by way of Mark White’s excellent blog. Mark points out new UK rules requiring website disclosures of corporate info.Though I’m not basedin the UK, nor do I currently post all of that info myself, I think it’s a fair illustration ofthe kind of disclosure thathelps customers build trust in a company. Check it out. [...]
January 16th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Interesting. But sometimes its tough to really decide if a blog is a corporate blog or a personal professional interest blog isn’t it? Especially for a small company – the types where “the person is the company and the company is the person” – does it mean that everything he puts online has to become so official?
January 16th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
It’s a good point that you make Kian Ann. However, I think that when it comes to legislation, even for a small company, then it’s probably better to err on the side of caution and so provide too much information rather than too little.
February 27th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
[...] Profile and contact detailsAt the end of the day, the goal of 95% of Business Blogs is to encourage people to engage in dialogue with you so make it easy for them to do so. And while you are at it, take the opportunity to let them know a bit more about you oh, and dont forget the information you need to provide by law now! [...]
February 6th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Adding this to my bookmarks. Thank You