Companies Act 2006

[Penfold]

I know a few of you are self-employed and employers.

I've been telling my clients about this and am amazed that they knew nothing about it so I'm telling you guys JIC.

The new Companies Act came into force on Jan 1 and, amongst other things, companies now have to add details to email footers, faxes, letterheads etc:

• The name, geographic address and email address of the service provider. The name of the organisation with which the customer is contracting must be given.  This might differ from the trading name. Any such difference should be explained – e.g. "XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited."

It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address and geographic address somewhere easily accessible on the site. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included.

• If a company, the company's registration number should be given and, under the Companies Act, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. "XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567")
  
• If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
• If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions.

www.out-law.com/page-7594

PEN

[Gandalf]

most interesting, thanks for that. I guess I'd better look into this further.