Update to Companies Act
Company Information on E-mails and Web

An update to the Companies Act legislation of 1985 means that companies in the UK must now display information such as Company Registration number and Registered Address on your website and business e-mails. Companies who fail to do so will risk a fine.

According to the e-commerce regulations combined with the update to the companies act, the following information is now required to be placed somewhere on your business website:

The name, geographic address and email address of the service provider or business

If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.

If the business is a company, the registered company number & place of registration should be included (i.e. Pyranet UK Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 05329567

If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated - even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.

The following information is now mandatory on all business e-mail (as well as Letterhead and Order Forms) if your business is a public or private limited company, or a limited liability partnership according to the Companies Act:

Your company registration number

Your place of registration (e.g. England & Wales or Scotland)

Your registered office address

Most businesses choose to also also add disclaimers to outbound e-mail to protect themselves from various legal issues. A good guide can be found on Out-Law.com:

Out-Law.com - Email notices and email footers

Businesses often ask us how to best implement outbound disclaimers and we are happy to discuss these requirements however it might also be worth reviewing our Spam & Virus Filtration system which also has the added benefit of outbound disclaimers for your business. Pyranet MailGuard - Spam & Virus Filter