New law on company website details

We have a business briefing on the information that a UK company must display or give under the Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008.

Among other things, the Regulations oblige companies to disclose certain information on their websites and in electronic communications.

 The Regulations, made under section 82 of the Companies Act 2006, replaces the relevant provisions of the Companies Act 1985 and (effectively) the Business Names Act 1985 with effect from 1 October 2008.

The UK position is that websites need to list a postal business address and an email contact address. If a company the website would need to register the registered office number.

In a separate development in a German ECJ case companies must now provide a means of contact on their website not just the details of the postal and email addresses. The means of contact can be a telephone or fax number, or a contact form that can be answered within 60 minutes. These additional measures are designed to protect consumers and apply to most commercial websites whether or not they accept electronic payment.

Businesses must now include an email address and a postal address on their website. The provision of a telephone contact number however is not a requisite so long as a valid email address and a contact form and response mechanism exist.

The ECJ also ruled that a web form filled in by a consumer and responded to by a company by an email within 60 minutes was acceptable communication of the company contact information. It would not be so were there a longer delay of response as such would not be “direct and effective” under Article 5 (1) of the E-Commerce Directive.

What is not clear is whether an automated response would suffice as the ECJ appears to want a more personalised service though this would need to be tested by Trading Standards or the Office Of Fair Trading.

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