PRESS RELEASE: LONDON, UK, January, 2007 - Based on UK Law and updated in December 2006, the E-commerce Regulations, also referred to as the Electronic Commerce Regulations (EC Directive), were introduced to clarify and harmonise the rules of on-line business throughout Europe with the aim of boosting consumer confidence, and has been formally implemented into the UK’s E-commerce Regulations.
The Directive was originally passed in June 2000 and implementation throughout Europe was enforced. The UK missed its implementation deadline by over eight months thereafter.
The Directive covers more than just e-commerce businesses. The UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has explained that it is not restricted to buying and selling online but also covers those offering online information (e.g. via websites) or commercial communications (e.g. adverts) or providing tools for search, access and retrieval of data. Also covered is video on demand, web hosting or operating a communications network (email, IM etc).
The Regulations look at where a business is based, not where its equipment is based, thus, your company cannot escape the terms of the Regulations by locating your servers abroad.
Businesses partaking in ecommerce activities, whether involved in the e-commerce industry or not, should provide the following minimum information, which must be easily, directly and permanently accessible:
- The name of the service provider must be given somewhere easily accessible on the site. This might differ from the trading name and any such difference should be explained – e.g. "XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited."
- The email address of the service provider must be given. It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address.
- The geographic address of the service provider must be given. 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 in any event.
- If a company, the company's registration number should also be given.
- If a company, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. "XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567") though this is a requirement of the Companies Act as from 31st December 2006, not the E-commerce Directive.
- 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.
What you should do next
- Examine your website.
- Do you need to amend your terms and conditions?
- Do you have suitable disclaimers in place?
- Does your order process take advantage of the Regulations' flexibility to "acknowledge" rather than "accept" orders?
- Have you assessed your international exposure?
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
This information should also appear on your company's website, and 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. 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 using a standardised compliance tool, such a ClearFormat.
Author: Kelly Oliver
