E-Commerce Legal Regulations

All business websites whether or not trading on-line must list the following general information:-

    * Business name;

    * Business address which must be a geographic address, i.e. street number etc. In other words a PO Box address is not likely to be sufficient; but a registered office address would;

    * Other contact details such as email address and phone number;

    * Its registration number and registered office address if a company;

    * [Its place of registration if a company or a LLP. Please note this is a requirement under new regulations which were brought into force on the 1st January 2007 ]

    * VAT number if the business is VAT registered;

    * Details of any trade and professional body or scheme with which the business is registered and the registration number if applicable.

The required information does not need to be on every page of the website; however, it must be ‘easily, directly and permanently accessible’. It is therefore advisable for the website to display the information on the ‘About Us’ or ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Disclaimer and Legal Information’ page.

In addition, full prices must be listed on the website and the prices must be clear and indicate whether or not they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs.

The above mentioned information must also be included in any commercial communication that carried out by way of email or SMS text message or interactive TV.

On-line contractual process

The following additional information must be provided to customers prior to on-line orders being placed:

    * The technical steps involved in completing the transaction;

    * Whether the contract will be stored by the traders and whether it will be permanently accessible;

    * The technical means to correct input errors made prior to placing the orders;

    * The languages offered to conclude the contract;

    * Links to relevant codes of conduct that the businesses subscribe;

    * An email acknowledgment should (preferably) be sent without undue delay once a customer places an order electronically; the email should confirm that the order has been received and when it will be processed. Care should be taken to ensure that the order is ‘acknowledged’ not ‘accepted’. This will ensure that you do not become a victim of any pricing errors as no contract is formed until the actual delivery of the order.

    * Any terms and conditions should be provided in a way that enables the customers to store and reproduce them.