Website regulations
How many of you have have a professional website and do they know exactly the data that by law must be published within it? 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.
From a FederPrivacy survey it emerged that out of three sites examined, two do not report the content required by the Italian and European legislation relating to the publication of web content and electronic commerce.
There legislation in Italy it is vast and the obligations to publish on the website of the corporate data of companies and sole proprietorships are different depending on the type of business or professional activity carried out.
Let's see what are the visibility obligations on a website
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 social network.
Here are the data that the website of a capital company must contain according to the civil law:
- business name
- address of the registered office
- tax code and VAT number
- PEC (certified e-mail)
- Office of the Register of Companies where you are registered
- REA (Economic Administrative Repertoire number)
- capital on the balance sheet
- possible liquidation following dissolution
- possible status of a company with a single shareholder (eg: Spa and unipersonal Srl)
- company or entity to whose management and coordination the company is subject (Article 2497-bis of the Italian Civil Code)
For sole proprietorships and partnerships (Snc; Sas and Simple Company)
The law only provides forobligation to indicate the VAT number at least on the home page of the company's website.
For these, however, recommended indicate in 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 problem disclosing data on its own website:
- name (company name)
- company headquarters
- tax code and VAT number
- Office of the Register of Companies at which it is registered and the relative 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.
VAT number
Furthermore, the burden of publishing the VAT number on the home page of the site 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 important changes that allow you to circumvent the bureaucracy and speed up the process of merging or splitting a company: if previously 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 the companies that carry out e-commerce activities, art. 7, Legislative Decree 70/2003 requires that the details of the seller (domicile or registered office) and of the provider (including e-mail) be made accessible, Rea registration number o Business Register; indication and contact details of the competent authority in case of activity subject to concession, license or authorization.
Here are the data that an e-commerce must necessarily contain:
-contacts
- the PEC address
- the details of any concessions, licenses, authorizations
- any professional order
- professional title and state in which it was issued
- references to the code of ethics
-clear information on prices and rates
- permitted activities
- indication of delivery costs
Privacy Policy for web users
It is essential that each website has a privacy policy as indicated by art. 13 of Legislative Decree. n. 196 of 30 June 2003 ("Code regarding the protection of personal data"), ie a declaration of how the user's data are processed.
The legislation is certainly very complex but, in summary, it is necessary:
- declare the owner of the data processing
- indicate any data processors
- indicate the place of data processing
- indicate the type of data processed, the methods of processing and the rights of the interested parties.
There are, then, some data for which it is necessary to obtain consent in order to be able to carry out the processing and there are more or less sensitive data. In this case, the penalties are very heavy and range from 6,000 euros upwards.
Therefore, it is mandatory that your website has a privacy page, also inserting a 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 that are stored by your computer when you visit a website.
THE Web sites they use cookies to collect useful information on the use that is made of a site and at the same time serve to personalize user browsing.
When a website is professional, cookies help to improve and speed up navigation and to collect information on user preferences to facilitate subsequent accesses.
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.
Sanctions
In the case of omitted information or information that does not include the elements indicated, as well as in the provisions pursuant to art. 13 of the Code, in this provision, an administrative sanction is provided for the payment of a sum from 6,000 to 36,0000 euros (Article 161 of the Code).
The installation of cookies on users' terminals in the absence of their prior consent entails, on the other hand, the penalty of paying a sum from 10,000 to 120,000 euros (Article 162, paragraph 2-bis, of the Code).
If by reading this article you have noticed that your website is not perfectly in line with current legislation or you want more information, click here to contact us.
