The FDC Blog

19 Nov 2012

The importance of accurate company information on your website

Failure to disclose the correct company information on your business website; which could include your company name, registered office address (or the address specified as the registered office address), disclosure of company number or the country of registration could end in instances of severe penalties.

For example, a company who registered as Roberts Cakes & Sweets Limited could go wrong in a few ways in their online description;

If the company is named on the website as Robert’s Cakes and Sweets Company Ltd. - this is not accurate to the description as viewable on the Companies House records and will consequently be marked for a written warning.

Companies House will object to any variations in the text or punctuation which has been registered. In the given instance; the apostrophe shouldn’t be included and the ampersand needs be included. All the punctuation and spelling is required to be stated in the exact form as it was entered into the register. The only instance where abbreviation is allowed is for ‘Limited’ to ‘Ltd.’. The addition of the word ‘Company’ is also against regulations; no extra words should be included in any such description.

The company address which was initially registered also needs to be shown on all instances where the company name and details are displayed by law.

So, what are the exact requirements?

∙ Registered company name

∙ Place of registration

∙ Registered address

∙ Registered number

∙ VAT number

Penalties for non-compliance

Failure to comply with disclosure requirements will result in hefty fines due to breach of regulations as stated by the Companies Act, so be sure to keep your brand legalities consistent throughout each of your marketing channels.

By Sam Hurley