Website Regulations
How many of you have a professional website and know exactly the data must be published within it by law? When you want to develop an online project, you also need to worry about the regulatory aspect if you don’t want to incur penalties. Let’s see what the visibility obligations on a website are For joint-stock companies (Spa; Sapa; Srl; Srls)
The art. 2250 of the Civil Code, amended by art. 42, L. 88/2009, provides that joint-stock companies publish legal information in their deeds, in correspondence, in the electronic space connected to the public access telematic network on which communication activities are carried out and in other virtual places of communication, such as emails and profiles on a social network.
Here Are The Data That The Website Of A Capital Company Must Contain According To The Civil Law
- Company
- Name – address of the registered office
- Tax code and VAT number
- PEC (certified email)
- Office of the Register of Companies where you are registered
- REA (Economic and Administrative Index number)
- Capital in the balance sheet
- Possible liquidation following the dissolution
Possible status of a company with a single shareholder (e.g., Spa and unipersonal Srl) company or entity to which the company is subject to management and coordination (Article 2497-bis of the Italian Civil Code). For sole proprietorships and partnerships (Snc; Sas and Simple Company). The law only provides for the obligation to indicate the VAT number at least on the company website’s home page. For these, however, it is recommended to indicate in the documents and correspondence, including invoices and DDT, the following data, for reasons of transparency towards users who, reasonably, could feel safer towards a company that has no problems in disclosing the data on your website :
- Name (company name)
- Company headquarters
- Tax code and VAT number
- Office of the Register of Companies where it is registered and its registration number
- Any state of liquidation of the company.
Sanctions
For non-compliance with the provisions of art. 2630 cc, modified by art. 42, co. 1, Law 88/2009, there are financial penalties:
- For non-fulfillment of the obligations referred to in Article 2250, co. 1, 2, 3, 4, cc (administrator, mayor, liquidator, judicial administrator, and government commissioner) between 206 and 2,065 euros from the Chamber of Commerce;
- For communication failures imposed by the tax law between 258.23 and 2,065.83 euros.
- VAT number
- Furthermore, the burden of publishing the VAT number on the site’s home page for taxable persons also concerns the websites used for advertising purposes.
Mergers Or Demergers
The Legislative Decree n. 123 of 22 June 2012 has made significant changes that allow you to circumvent the bureaucracy and speed up the process of merging or splitting a company: before they could be achieved with a communication to the Register of Companies for a few years they can be published on the company website, but, these documents must be authenticated with digital signature and time stamp.
E-Commerce Websites
For companies that carry out e-commerce activities, art. 7, Legislative Decree 70/2003 requires making accessible the details of the seller (domicile or registered office) and the lender (including email), the Rea or Company Register number; indication and contact details of the competent authority in the event of an activity subject to concession, license or authorization.
Here Are The Data That E-Commerce Must Necessarily Contain
- Contacts
- Certified email address
- Details of any concessions, licenses, authorizations
- Any professional order – professional
- Title and state in which it was issued
- References to the code of ethics
- A clear indication of prices and tariffs
- Permitted activities
- Indication of expenses delivery
Privacy Policy For Web Users
Each website must have a privacy policy as indicated by art. 13 of the Legislative Decree. n. 196 of 30 June 2003 (“Code regarding the protection of personal data”), which declares how the user’s data is processed. The legislation is undoubtedly very complex, but, in summary, it is necessary:
- Declare the data controller
- Indicate any data controllers
- Indicate the place where the
Data is processed – indicate the type of data processed, the methods of processing, and the rights of the interested parties. There is some data for which it is necessary to obtain consent to process it, and there is more or less sensitive data. In this case, the penalties are hefty and range from 6,000 euros upwards. Therefore, your website must have a privacy page, including specific wording such as the following: “by sending this request, our privacy policy is automatically accepted.” Information on the use of cookies by the website.
Cookies are small files stored by your computer when you visit a website. Websites use cookies to collect valuable information on the use made of a site and, at the same time, serve to personalize user browsing. When a website is professional, cookies help improve and speed up navigation and collect information on user preferences to facilitate subsequent access. On 4 June 2014, the Privacy Guarantor, with a provision published in the Official Gazette, established the simplified procedures for informing users about the use of cookies within websites, providing guidelines for acquiring consent when it is the law to request it.
The provision concerns the so-called profiling cookies, on which it is necessary to have the consent of the users to install them on their devices. For this reason, every company with a website had to obligatorily adapt to the legislation in force, preparing its portal for correct user information and a prior request for authorization to install cookies.
Also Read: The Importance of Reaching More Customers Through User-Friendly Websites
