What a UK Online Seller Must Display by Law

Which identity, contact and pricing details is a UK online seller legally required to publish, under which regulations, and how should a buyer read a site that omits them?

A UK seller does not get to choose whether to say who it is. Company law, e-commerce law and consumer-contract law each compel particular details to appear on a website, and they overlap enough that a compliant site ends up with a recognisable footer: a registered name, a company number, a registered office, a street address, an email address, and prices that say whether tax and delivery are included.

For a buyer that is useful. The duty to publish these details is independent of anything you ask, so a missing item is a fact about the seller, not a gap in your questions. This article sets out what each regime requires, where the wording comes from, and how to read an incomplete page. The statements below were checked against the cited pages on 10 October 2026.

Three regimes, one footer

The duties come from different places and protect different people, which is why no single page lists all of them.

The Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 govern what a company has to disclose about itself on its letters, order forms and websites ^[1]. The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 govern what any online service provider must make available to the people it serves ^[2]. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 govern what a business must tell a consumer before a distance contract is made ^[3].

Checklists written for sellers often cite only one of these, and some still cite superseded wording. If you are using the law as a vetting aid, the three instruments above are the ones to check. Each can be read free on legislation.gov.uk.

Company details: name, number and registered office

Regulation 25 of the 2015 Regulations says a company must disclose a short list of particulars on its websites. They are the part of the UK in which it is registered, its registered number, and the address of its registered office. A limited company must also show that it is a limited company, which in practice means the legal ending of the name ^[1].

The regulation text on legislation.gov.uk carries a note that regulation 25 was temporarily restricted in March 2024 by two statutory instruments. Read the current text on the page rather than relying on a summary, including this one.

These three facts are what let you check the seller on the public registers. A company number lets you find the company record; the registered office address lets you compare it with the address on the invoice. A site that shows a trading name and nothing else has withheld the one fact that makes verification quick.

Geographic address and email: why a contact form is not enough

Regulation 6 of the E-Commerce Regulations requires a service provider to make certain information available in a form that is easily, directly and permanently accessible. The list includes the provider's name, the geographic address at which it is established, and contact details including an email address that allow rapid and effective direct contact ^[2].

Two consequences follow from the wording. A postcode alone or a postal box is not obviously a geographic address of establishment. And a web form that sends a message into a queue is not an email address: the regulation names the email address because the reader needs somewhere to write and keep a copy.

The same regulation requires register details where the provider is entered in a public trade or similar register, and the VAT identification number where the activity is subject to VAT ^[2]. A seller that quotes prices inclusive of VAT but publishes no VAT number is asking you to accept a tax statement it has not substantiated.

Prices: what must be stated

Where a site mentions prices, regulation 6 requires them to be shown clearly and unambiguously, including whether they are inclusive of tax and delivery costs ^[2]. A price with an asterisk and no explanation fails that test, and so does a total that grows at the last step of checkout.

GOV.UK guidance for businesses selling at a distance says the price given to the customer should include all taxes, and that delivery arrangements, costs and expected arrival time should be stated before the order is placed ^[4]. For a business buyer, whether the figure is net or gross of VAT decides what your finance office can reclaim, so it needs to be stated as plainly as the price itself.

Pre-contract information for consumers

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 apply when the buyer is a consumer. They require the seller to give, before the contract is made, information on the goods, the total price, delivery arrangements and the right to cancel ^[3]. GOV.UK summarises the cancellation point: the customer can cancel up to 14 days after delivery, and if the seller fails to tell them, the period can extend to 12 months ^[4].

The information has to be given in a durable form, not just displayed on a page that can change. GOV.UK describes this as on paper, in an email or in another format the customer can save ^[4].

If you are buying for an institution or a company, these cancellation rights are generally not yours, and the contract terms carry more weight. The identity and contact duties above still apply, because regulation 6 and the company disclosure rules are not limited to consumer sales. The article on consumer rights and business purchases covers where the line falls.

Reading an incomplete footer

A missing item has three possible explanations: oversight, error and evasion. The way to separate them is to look at the pattern rather than any single gap.

1. Oversight: one detail is absent and everything else is present and consistent. A small seller that forgot a VAT line is a different case from a seller that published nothing.
2. Error: details are present but do not agree. The company number returns a different name on the public register, or the registered office on the site differs from the one on the invoice.
3. Evasion: the name, number, address and email are all absent, and the only route to the business is a form. This pattern is the one that deserves a decision to stop.
4. A trading name that appears nowhere in connection with the legal entity. If you cannot connect the brand to a registered company, you cannot hold anyone to the contract.

Sellers based outside the UK

The company disclosure rules in the 2015 Regulations are about companies registered in the UK, so they will not appear on a site run by a company registered elsewhere. Regulation 6 speaks of the address at which the provider is established, and where that is outside the UK the practical position depends on the facts and on the contract terms.

A buyer should therefore expect an overseas seller to show equivalent details voluntarily: a legal entity name, a registration number in its home register, and a street address. Their absence matters more, not less, because the buyer has fewer remedies if the order goes wrong. Which UK protections follow a particular sale is a question for the sale terms and, if needed, for advice rather than for a general article.

What to do before a first order

Open the footer, the terms and the contact page. Record the legal name, company number, registered office, street address, email address and VAT number if shown. Then check the company number and the VAT number against the public registers and file the result with the order paperwork.

If something is missing, ask for it by email. A seller that has the details will send them within a working day. Keep the reply: it becomes part of your supplier record.