how to keep your web site legal
Overview
If you are based in the UK and run a business web site to
sell or promote your products or services then make sure that you are
meeting your legal obligations.
Note that as long as your business is physically based in the UK then UK
laws will usually apply - even if your web site is hosted in another
country.
Here are six of the main issues to consider:
- General e-commerce and distance selling regulations may apply even if you are only using your web site to promote
your business and not to actually sell products or services online.
You should check these regulations to make sure that you are displaying
the required information about your business on your web site.
 Read more about
the e-commerce and distance selling regulations
- Data protection regulations apply if you
are collecting information from your visitors through online forms, by e-mail
or telephone.
Read more about
data protection
- Trade descriptions - the same rules apply to web sites as to any other media. If
you are describing your goods or services online then your descriptions
must be accurate and not misleading.
- Access
for users with disabilities is an important issue, and parts of the Disability Discrimination Act
that come into force during
2004 may well affect your web site.
Read more about
the Disability
Discrimination Act
- Intellectual property rights - you automatically
have rights regarding the information that you publish on your site
through international copyright laws. You must ensure that you are not
infringing anyone else's rights - for example, make sure that you have
permission to use other people's logos, images or text before you
include them in your site. Be aware that any designers, photographers,
illustrators or writers that you commission to provide original material
for your site retain the copyright to their work. This means that they
have the right to re-produce it elsewhere unless you have a written
contract that says otherwise.
- The EU 'Anti-spam' laws -
the 'Privacy
and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003' only
relate to your web site if you are using 'Cookies' to track visitor
behaviour. In a nutshell - you have to tell users that you are using
cookies, explain why and show them how to switch them off. If you don't
know what cookies are then you probably aren't using them - find out
more at www.allaboutcookies.org.
The other aspects of the regulations are beyond the scope of this
article - you can find out more using the links on the right.
There are other legal requirements that affect specific
industries - in fact, any regulations that affect your business in general
may have implications for your web site.
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Remember: your web site has to comply with the law just like any
other aspect of your business. If in doubt, ask your solicitor to
check your site to make sure that you haven't missed anything.
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Revised 11 March 2004 |
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