Legal
Brand Intermedia recognise that when companies are planning to trade online it can be hard to compile all the necessary legal documents required to cover all eventualities. Therefore we have briefly outlined each of the documents below.
Terms & Conditions of Sale
Every seller of goods over the internet should use its own set of terms and conditions to regulate the contract of sale between the seller and customer and should be drafted to comply with the requirements of the Distance Selling Regulations and United Kingdom consumer protection law – assuming that the supplier is selling to consumers and not other businesses. Failure to comply could result in crucial contract terms being unenforceable.
The terms should give the seller the ability:
- To cancel the contract
- To refuse to supply in certain circumstances
- Specify delivery terms
- Specify delivery costs
- To limit liability for breach by the supplier
- For after-sale services
- To detail extra product guarantees
Privacy Policy
If products are to be sold and purchased on line, personal data will need to be collected. It is now standard practice to include a privacy policy (otherwise known as a privacy statement) on a website to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998.
A privacy policy is typically a detailed description of how a website operator will collect, use, disclose and protect personal data
obtained via the website,
together with details of the website user’s rights in respect of the personal data.
Data Protection Notice and Checklist
This is a short notice which specifies the identity of the data controller, the purposes for the processing and any other information necessary to make the processing fair (such as any disclosures of the data). This notice must be given to users who provide personal information at the time of collection to comply with first principle of the Data Protection Act 1998 and therefore should appear on any information gathering form. This form will also usually contain opt in and opt out options so that the customer may specify whether he agrees to information being shared with others for marketing purposes.
Copyright Notice
Website owners may wish to post a notice on their website to make it clear to users that copyright, database rights and similar rights in all material on the site (including images, text, video clips, sound etc) are owned or licensed by the website operator.
It makes reference to copying material, linking to the website, reproduction
of logos
on those links etc.
Disclaimer of Liability
Website operators may wish to post a disclaimer notice on their website if they
are giving or allowing others to give information or opinions on the website.
It is not intended to be a disclaimer in relation to goods or services supplied to a customer
in return for payment – as this is an area for the terms and conditions
of sale. Such a document would seek to exclude liability as to the accuracy, quality, completeness, fitness for purpose of the site or any of its contents and would seek
to exclude liability for any inability to use the site. This type of document may also
be useful where the site contains information, representations or prices submitted
by third parties. The document states that no warranty is made that the site will be
free from viruses etc.
It may be appropriate to select particular disclaimers from
this document such as the virus disclaimer but not others.
If you would like to find out more please contact us.
