Whether you're a fully trading SMe or you sell products/services along side your main job. It’s important your business website comply with current legislation. Website legal requirements change frequently, and ignorance is no excuse for ensuring your business complies with all the legal issues and statutory requirements that govern the content and functionality of your website.
The identity of your business
The Companies Act 2006 - This Act requires you disclose certain information about the identity of your company on your website.
This information doesn’t need to be on every page, but it does need to be easily found so ideal pages would be your Contact Us page, or About Us page. You will also find placing some of this information on the footer section of your pages will be useful to both users, and for your search engine optimisation:
Company name
Company registered number
Place of registration, such as England and Wales
Registered office address
Your company name, postal address and company email address
How to contact your business via non-electronic means
Your VAT number, even if the website is not being used for ecommerce transactions
The name of any trade bodies or professional associations that the business is part of, including membership or registration details.
Gaining consent for retaining user's data
The GDPR regulations came into effect in May 2018. It is one of the most significant pieces of legislation improving the rights of individuals to understand how their personal data is being processed. Tasks you need to carry out to comply with GDPR regulations include:
Preferences on your web contact forms set to default to “no” or blank, and users have to actively opt-in
Making it easy for users to withdraw their consent or opt-out
Forms should collect a minimum of information, and only the data required for the task at hand
Notifying users of cookies that are being used to track their behaviour
And have in place a data breach process in case the worse happens.
Core website legislation
These are the standard pages for you to include on your website.
A privacy policy that details what personal information your business collects, and how you use that information.
A cookie disclosure explains how your business uses cookies on your website.
A disclaimer stipulating how users can use the information on your website, and what liability (if any) your business accepts.
Both your cookie disclosure and disclaimer can be part of your privacy policy.
Consumer protection
If your company is selling online, then your business will need to comply with a range of legislation that includes the online and distance selling regulations as well as electronic commerce regulations and the consumer rights act. The main issues to focus on include:
The required information before an order is placed, including full costs, payment terms, delivery arrangements, and the rights to cancel
The required information after an order is placed, including a copy of the contract to purchase
That you fulfill the order in a satisfactory manner
That your goods and services are of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described on your website
Cyber security and protecting personal data
The Information Commissioner’s Office has published a set of technical security processes that are considered to represent appropriate measures under the GDPR.
As a business, your responsibility is to take the necessary steps to prevent personal data from being accidentally or deliberately compromised. Simply put, it is your responsibility to prevent hacking and cybercrime.
This checklist of website legal requirements was curated to help you, while setting up and/or running your small business. If, your unsure how to implement these changes into your business. Contact ALJ LDN and one of our consultants would be happy to assist you or visit our services page for more details