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Companies in the UK must include certain regulatory information on their websites and in their email footers before 1 January 2007 or they will breach the Companies Act and risk a fine.

Every company should list its company registration number, place of registration, and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on "business letters" but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents.

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Service providers, whether involved in e-commerce 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 registation 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.
* Prices on the web site 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 on-line businesses that sell to consumers (B2C, as opposed to B2B, sales). For details of these requirements, see our article, The Distance Selling Regulations - An Overview.