Six months on - the Companies Act
So I'm still getting business emails from registered companies that don't feature a geographic address, registration number and/or VAT number despite this becoming a requirement by law as I've already mentioned.
I commented on this as an afterthought to one of these companies and the response was essentially "Not heard about that"
Yep despite the massive advertising campaign with spots on TV, billboards and a blitz of leaflets... oh no wait a sec that was salt and getting your tax returns in on time. In the interests of greater information exchange between companies and consumers, the government has still failed to heed its own advice and actually publicise this.
To contradict this we still get the odd missive from our solicitor friends telling us the address and numbers need to be on every email and on every page of our website, which just goes to prove how clearly this amendment was written or at least how clearly it was read.
To clarify (and remembering I'm not a lawyer) the actual wording means that you need to attach this information to every business related email going out of the company and that it also needs to be available on your website. So sending an internal email to Clare in HR doesn't need to have it on, likewise sending the latest list of jokes to your mate Kevin from your work address doesn't (unless your company is in the joke business) and your website can just have the information listed on its contact us or equivalent page.
I haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
2 comments:
It's particularly silly when you get emails from companies with reams on the bottom about how if the mail is not for you then obviously it must be your fault if they addressed it wrong and they're going to sue your pants for reading their misdirected mail, and by the way would you be so kind as to tell them before deleting it, and these mails still don't have the required information on. It sort of pre-emptively puts a hole in whatever technical-infeasibility excuse they lamely come up with. I particularly hate it when people send such mails to mailing lists: obviously in such a case it is not intended only for the named recipient.
As for putting your address on your website, I remember my E-commerce lectures in final year, where we were advised by the Computer Lab's legal counsel that under EU law, any contract entered into via a website is not binding on the customer unless the website identifies the legal address of the vendor, so most businesses should already have all their details on their websites.
Indeed I often get a three line email with half a page of legalese at the bottom of it.
Oh and that it's been virus-checked, but that doesn't mean it's safe to open; which makes you wonder what the point was of telling me that in the first place.
Didn't know about the EU law, perhaps this alteration was to bring UK law into compliance?
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