Companies Act 2006 Requirements

Website: an aide memoire

The following is the minimum information that must be on any company's website.

• 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).

Email notices and email footers

Disclaimers and confidentiality notices are automatic additions to the end of many organisations' email, sometimes adding half a page of text or more to the sender's message. There is no legal authority on the effectiveness of these notices in email messages; but that is not to say that they should not be used, provided care is taken in drafting them. The disclaimer and the confidentiality notice are intended to serve different purposes, and ideally should be separated.

In addition, certain information is required in the email footer of a company or Limited Liability Partnership.

Mandatory information

If your business is a private or public limited company or a Limited Liability Partnership, the Companies Act 1985 requires all of your business emails (and your letterhead and order forms) to include the following details in legible characters:

• Your company registration number;
• Your place of registration (e.g. Scotland or England & Wales); and
• Your registered office address

Failure to comply with these requirements puts a company at risk of a fine.

The duty has existed for business letters for many years. But some people were unsure whether this duty extended to email communication. Any doubt was removed by an amendment to the Companies Act 1985 that took effect on 1st January 2007. From 1st October 2008, equivalent rules come into force, passed with reference to the Companies Act 2006.

It is not enough to provide a link to this information from an email footer.

Not all emails will be relevant to your business but most companies will find it easier to add the information to all outgoing emails, including those messages that forward or reply to a third party's email.

For avoidance of doubt, these details are not required of sole traders or standard partnerships.

An example footer:

Green Organisation is a limited company registered in England and Wales. Registered number: 5464771. Registered office: Green House, 21 Bloom Street, London, WC1 IAA.

May 2009