Business surface intelligence for UK companies

UK company website legal requirements: what you must display

A company registered in the UK must show four things on its website: its registered name, the part of the UK where it is registered, its registered number and its registered office address. A business that sells or promotes anything online must also make available a geographic address, an email address and, if VAT registered, its VAT number. The first set comes from the Companies Act 2006 through the Names and Trading Disclosures Regulations 2015; the second from the E-Commerce Regulations 2002. This page is the map; each item links to the page that goes deeper.

Key facts

• Registered name on every company website; number, place of registration and registered office on websites, business letters and order forms (2015 Regulations, regulations 24 and 25).
• Readable with the naked eye; text, not decoration (regulation 20).
• Online businesses: name, geographic address, email, register and registration number, VAT number, clear prices (E-Commerce Regulations, regulation 6).
• LLPs: the same as companies, with their own number and registered office.
• Sole traders and partnerships: no company number; name and geographic address on a commercial site under the E-Commerce Regulations; name and service address on letters, orders, invoices and demands under section 1202 of the Companies Act.
• Breach is an offence (fine up to £1,000 plus a daily fine) and can stop a company enforcing a contract (Companies Act 2006, section 83).

The four company-law items

Three conditional items sit beside them: a company whose name is exempt from "limited" must say it is a limited company; a CIC that is not a plc must say the same; and if share capital is mentioned anywhere it must be the paid-up figure.

Where it goes and how it must look

The regulations say "on its websites" and leave the page to you. A one-line legal footer on every page is the standard answer because it is always present and satisfies the E-Commerce Regulations' "easily, directly and permanently accessible" test at the same time. The characters must be readable unaided, so not tiny, not low-contrast, and not an image. What a limited company must put in its footer separates the legal items from the conventional ones, and the footer template gives copy-and-paste wording for each kind of business.

The online-business items

The E-Commerce Regulations 2002 apply to "information society services", which covers most commercial websites whether or not they sell online. Regulation 6 requires the provider's name, geographic address, contact details including an email address, the register and registration number if it is on one, the VAT number if the activity is subject to VAT, and prices stated clearly, saying whether tax and delivery are included. For a company, the registration number is the company number, so one footer line serves both laws. VAT number on a website and the E-Commerce Regulations explained go further.

Beyond the website

The same registered name must appear on all business correspondence, electronic included, and the further particulars on anything that is a business letter. Email footer requirements covers the email rules and the director-names trap; invoice requirements covers invoices, which carry VAT rules on top.

Different kinds of business

• LLPs: the same Part 6 rules, applied by the LLP regulations. LLP website requirements.
• Sole traders and partnerships: no company number; the E-Commerce Regulations and section 1202. Sole trader website requirements.
• Charities, CICs, PLCs, overseas companies: each has an extra line. Charities, CICs, PLCs, overseas companies with a UK establishment.
• FCA-authorised firms and appointed representatives: status disclosure and the principal's name. FCA firm website disclosures, appointed representatives.
• Group websites: which company is being disclosed when one site serves several. Group websites.

What happens when it is wrong

Non-compliance without reasonable excuse is an offence by the company and every officer in default: a fine of up to level 3 on the standard scale (£1,000) and up to £100 a day while it continues. Section 83 of the Companies Act lets a counterparty have a company's contract claim dismissed where the breach prejudiced it. Both are rare in practice. The everyday consequence is that a site nobody can match to a registered company is treated as unverified by the people and systems that check, which now includes banks onboarding you, platforms listing you and customers deciding whether to pay you. Penalties for missing company details and a dissolved company's website still online cover the edges.

How Observes reads this

These rules are why a company's own website can be the evidence that it is the company's. Observes attaches websites to UK companies by reading exactly these disclosures: a company number on the site is the strongest kind of evidence we recognise, a registered name next to the registered postcode the next, and a name on its own is not evidence at all. A company that follows this page is a company anyone can verify, which is the point of the rules and the point of Observes. How the evidence classes work.

This page is general information about UK company law, not legal advice. The regulations were checked on the date shown below; check legislation.gov.uk for changes after that.

Written by Nathan. Last reviewed 8 October 2026.