Company website trading disclosures in the UK (2026)

Every business website in the UK must display a set of identification details. If these details are missing, you lose legal protection and face potential regulator intervention. The risk that matters most is not a fine. It is the loss of your ability to enforce contracts.

What the law requires

The disclosure obligation comes from multiple overlapping sources. Section 82 of the Companies Act 2006, read together with SI 2015/17 (the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015), Part 6 (regulations 21 to 28), sets out what must appear on company websites. The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, regulation 6, adds e-commerce-specific requirements. These regulations are retained EU law, still operative under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023.

1. Registered name. The full registered name of the company as it appears on the Companies House register.

2. Registered number. The Companies House registration number.

3. Place of registration. The correct jurisdiction: "Registered in England and Wales", "Registered in Scotland" or "Registered in Northern Ireland". Getting this wrong is surprisingly common and is itself a breach.

4. Registered office address. The address filed with Companies House. This must be a physical address, not a PO Box.

5. Legal form. Whether the company is a private limited company, public limited company, limited liability partnership or other form.

6. Winding-up status. If the company is being wound up, this must be stated.

7. VAT number. If the business is VAT-registered, VAT Regulations 1995, regulation 14 requires the VAT registration number to be shown on all VAT invoices. Regulation 6 of the E-Commerce Regulations extends this to the website itself.

8. Email address. Regulation 6(1)(c) of the E-Commerce Regulations 2002 requires an email address that allows rapid, direct contact. A contact form without an email address may not satisfy this requirement.

Section 83: the real enforcement stick

Section 83 of the Companies Act 2006 is the provision that matters most. If a company fails to comply with the disclosure requirements in s.82, it cannot enforce any right arising out of a contract made during the period of default unless a court grants relief under s.83(3). The court may only grant relief if the failure was accidental or due to inadvertence or if it is just and equitable to grant relief.

This means that if your website has been missing trading disclosures and you try to enforce a contract against a customer or supplier, the other party can argue that the contract was made during a period of breach and is therefore unenforceable by you. This is not a theoretical risk. It is a defence that can be raised in any commercial dispute.

Section 84 provides for a level 3 fine of up to GBP 1,000 for officers in default, but prosecutions under this section are rarely pursued by Companies House or the Insolvency Service.

Sole traders and partnerships

Sole traders and partnerships are not covered by s.82 but are covered by Part 41 of the Companies Act 2006, sections 1200 to 1206 (the Business Names Act provisions). If you carry on business under a name that does not consist of your surname (or the surnames of all partners), you must display your name and a service address on all business documents, including your website.

The E-Commerce Regulations 2002 apply equally to sole traders. Regulation 6 requires your name, geographic address, email address and any relevant registration numbers.

Data protection and sole trader disclosures

For sole traders, the trading disclosures contain personal data within the meaning of UK GDPR. The legal basis for publishing your name and address is compliance with a legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) UK GDPR). The scanner does not flag the publication of these details as a data protection issue because the law requires it.

Privacy-minimising measures you can take: use a business address rather than your home address, use a business email address rather than a personal one and use a business phone number.

Digital Services Act: not applicable to UK businesses

The EU Digital Services Act (Regulation 2022/2065) does not apply in the UK. The UK has not adopted equivalent legislation as of 2026. The Online Safety Act 2023 covers user-generated content on platforms but does not impose website disclosure obligations on ordinary business websites. The scanner does not flag DSA requirements for UK sites. This point is worth noting because some competing content incorrectly references the DSA in a UK context.

Enforcement in practice

Companies House does not actively police website disclosures. The level 3 fine of up to GBP 1,000 under s.84 exists on paper but is rarely applied.

The real enforcement mechanism is s.83: the loss of contractual enforcement rights. This is a self-executing consequence that does not require any regulator to take action. Any counterparty in a dispute can raise it as a defence.

HMRC may separately take an interest if a VAT-registered business fails to display its VAT number, though this is typically addressed through routine compliance checks rather than standalone enforcement.

For most UK business websites, adding the correct trading disclosures is a matter of ten minutes in the footer. Those ten minutes protect your ability to enforce every contract you conclude through your website.

How the scanner checks your disclosures

TrustYourWebsite detects patterns in the footer and on contact, about and legal pages. The scanner looks for a company registration number (Companies House format), a VAT number (GB prefix pattern), a geographic address and a valid email address.

The scanner reports "company number not found" if the pattern does not appear in the page HTML. The scanner cannot verify whether the company number matches the business operating the website or whether the registered office address is current. Those checks are not automatable.

Findings are technical signals, not legal verdicts.

Comparison table

The cheapest protection on your website

Trading disclosures are the simplest and least expensive compliance measure on your website. Ten minutes of footer updates protect your ability to enforce every contract you conclude online. The risk of missing disclosures is not a fine but the loss of legal protection at the moment you need it most. Under s.83, that loss is automatic and does not require anyone to take you to court first.

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This article is technical analysis, not legal advice. Consult a solicitor for advice specific to your situation.