Is Your Website Legal?

Did you know your website must adhere to some legal requirements? I have written a series of blogs on 7 important legal requirements your website and E-Commerce site must adehere to.

1. Company Information
2. Web Accessibility and the Disability Discrimination Act
3. The Data Protection Act
4. Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations
5. Electronic Commerce Regulations (EC Directive)
6. PCI DSS
7. The EU Anti Spam Laws
8. The EU Cookie Directive

Here is a summary of the 8 important requirements.

So What Does My Website Need to Conform?

To ensure your website is legal you must:

All Websites

• For a registered business, the website needs to display the following Company Information the Business Name, place of registration, registered number, its registered office address and if it is being wound up.
• Adhere to Priority 1 of the Web Accessibility Guidelines set out at W3C
• If the website collects user data (i.e. via simple enquiry form, or shopping cart), display a Privacy Policy informing the user what the business does with the data and that it conforms to the The Data Protection Act. The Privacy Policy needs to explain what cookies the website will create and what they are for. 
• Require user consent to leave cookies on the visitors machine, unless the cookie is a necessary requirement for the website to function

E-commerce Sites

• Have Terms & Conditions, Delivery and Returns Policy pages to display information as part of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations and Electronic Commerce Regulations (EC Directive)
• If you collect and process credit and debit card information, you must conform to the PCI DSS.
• To conform to EU Anti Spam Laws, ensure your email database is of opt-in email addresses, and include an opt-out instruction on all marketing emails sent