Requirements of the Companies Regulations 2006

From 1st January 2007 external business emails issued by public and private companies and limited liability partnerships MUST include the following information in legible text:

• Company or partnership registration number
• Place of registration (ie: England & Wales or Scotland)
• Registered office address

These requirements were introduced in The Companies (Registrar, Languages and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2006 which updated the Companies Act 1985 in order to comply with European law, namely the First Company Law Amendment Directive.  They effectively extend the requirements to show this information on companies’ “business letters” to all electronic documents and order forms.

The same information must also be displayed on the websites of these classes of organisation.  This requirement removes the ambiguities previously associated with the requirements of the E-commerce Regulations 2002 which referred to “geographic address” and required the registration number of organisations “registered in a trade or similar register” to be listed on their websites.

This article is provided solely to raise readers’ awareness of new legislation.  Readers should seek professional legal advice to ensure that their emails websites and documents comply with all relevant legislation.