Legal requirements for email addresses on websites

A really helpful website …thank you. But, on the matter of companies having to display a contact email address are you able/willing to tell me chapter and verse of the mandating law because I have noticed that many companies do not display a contact email address in addition to a contact web form. A case in point is a well-known insurance company, a company that has sent me unwanted emails and whose non-compliance with the law as you explain it in your link below has provided me with grounds for asking the FCA why they are not enforcing the law. FCA staff claim that they cannot find any legal requirement for a contact email address to be displayed.

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Alasdair Taylor's Answer

The UK requirements I am aware of (there may well be others) are:

The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 Reg 6(1)(c):

A person providing an information society service shall make available to the recipient of the service and any relevant enforcement authority, in a form and manner which is easily, directly and permanently accessible, the following information … (c) the details of the service provider, including his electronic mail address, which make it possible to contact him rapidly and communicate with him in a direct and effective manner;”

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2013/made

NB there are a separate set of rules dealing especially with financial services (e.g. The Electronic Commerce Directive (Financial Services and Markets) Regulations 2002).

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 Reg 13(1)(a):

Before the consumer is bound by a distance contract, the trader … must give or make available to the consumer the information listed in Schedule 2 in a clear and comprehensible manner, and in a way appropriate to the means of distance communication used”

Schedule 2 includes:

“the geographical address at which the trader is established and, where available, the trader?s telephone number, fax number and e-mail address, to enable the consumer to contact the trader quickly and communicate efficiently;”

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/3134/made

Notes:

  • There are other requirements to provide contact details (e.g. the GDPR, the Provision of Services Regulations 2009) but they are not so specific regarding the provision of email addresses.
  • I have not investigated the extent to which these provisions apply to the particular type of company referenced.
  • “Electronic mail”, at least under some of the legislation, includes things like SMS messages.

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