New Companies Act requires details on websites and e-mails

Regulations issued under the Companies Act 2006 have extended the requirements for limited companies to publish their registration details to electronic communications such as e-mails and websites.

The snappily titled Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006 came into force on 1 January 2007. They require companies to:

• Have their registered name mentioned legibly on all business letters, order forms, notices, official publications, invoices, receipts and websites; and
• Have their place of registration (for example England or England and Wales), registration number and registered address mentioned legibly on all business letters, order forms and websites.

The Regulations expressly state that “business letters” includes e-mails. There had been some doubt over whether the old legislation required the details to be placed in e-mails.

Accordingly, all those details must be mentioned in each e-mail sent by a company, as well as being placed on its website. The details do not need to be placed on every page of the website, but can be placed on the home page or behind a link to a “legal issues” page for example.

A breach of these requirements will render the company, and any officer of the company responsible for the issue of any non-compliant communication, liable to a fine.

Note that the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 contain further information requirements that apply to websites, so the main new change for many will be the requirement to put these details in e-mails.

The Companies Act 2006 and its subordinate regulations have introduced a variety of changes to companies legislation - please contact us if you would like to discuss any particular aspect.