All companies and LLP's should be aware of recent changes to the law governing the information that they are required to provide on their websites, electronic communications and order forms. These provisions came into force on 1 January 2007.

Under the Companies Act 1985 (the "1985 Act"), a company is required clearly to state its name on all business letters, notices and official publications, bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements, cheques and orders for money or goods purporting to be signed on behalf of the company, bills of parcels, invoices, receipts and letters of credit. A Company is also required to state on all business letters and order forms of the company: the company's place of registration, company number, registered office and, if the company is a limited company, the fact that it is a limited company.

In addition to the requirements of the Companies Act 1985, the Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures)

Regulations 2006 require all companies and LLP's to:

  • state the name of the company on all order forms; and

  • state the name of the company, the company's place of registration, company number, registered office and, if the company is a limited company, the fact that it is a limited company, on all of its websites.

References to business letters, and order forms now include documents in hard or electronic form and, therefore, will include any letter or order form sent by email or by facsimile transmission.

The penalty for a failure to comply with these new regulations is a fine which can be levied against any officer of a company, or any other person who authorises the issue of the document or website in breach of the new regulations.

Action

All companies and LLP's should therefore ensure that:

  1. their stationary, order forms and websites contain all of the requisite information;

  2. all electronic business correspondence (email and facsimile transmission) has up to date templates which contain all of the requisite information; and

  3. if the company's details are contained on websites such as trade directories which are under the company's control, such websites are updated to contain all of the requisite information.

This article is only intended as a general statement and no action should be taken in reliance on it without specific legal advice.