Mandatory information on the website of an individual entrepreneur
Verified 31 July 2023 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)
Every professional websites should display mandatory particulars for the information of the public. The absence of this information on the site is punishable.
The legal notice is the information that enables the user to identify you.
Legal notices are obligatory on any professional website and must be easily accessible.
They can be inserted into your general terms and conditions of sale (GTC) or in a dedicated page.
You must enter the following information:
- Identity of the company: your name, first name and address. If you are an individual entrepreneur (including a micro entrepreneur), your first and last names are marked as an individual entrepreneur or an EI initials.
- Registration number to SCR: titleContent
- Mail and phone number to contact your company
- VAT identification number
- Identity of the host of the site: name or corporate name, address and telephone number
- If you exercise regulated activity and subject to authorization (e.g. pharmacy or beverage outlet): name and address of the authority which issued the authorization.
Warning
Failure to provide information shall be punishable by1 year imprisonment and €75,000 fine.
The general conditions of sale (GTC) frame the trade relations.
They inform your customers of their rights and obligations when selling your products and/or services.
This transparency requirement can significantly reduce the risk of litigation between you and your customers.
The mandatory nature and content of the general conditions of sale vary depending on whether your offer of goods or services is addressed to private individuals or to professionals.
Home Customers
The GTC must be shown obligatory on your website. Failure to comply with this obligation to provide information shall be punishable by €3,000 of fine.
The general terms and conditions of sale must contain information following:
- Essential characteristics of goods and/or services
- Price TTC: titleContent in euro
- Costs, date and delivery terms
- Contract performance procedures
- Terms of payment: authorized methods of payment and the issue of late payment.
- Right of withdrawal: period and conditions to cancel and return the order.
- Legal assurance of compliance and guarantee of hidden defects
- Commercial guarantee and after-sales service: cost of remote communication
- Duration of the contract and conditions of termination, if applicable
- Surety or guarantee to be provided by the customer, if applicable
- Minimum duration of the customer's contractual obligations, if any
- Existence of a code of conduct applicable to the contract, if applicable
- Dispute resolution: competent court and possibility of recourse to an ombudsman
Please note
You must also provide a link to the European Online Dispute Resolution Platform (ODR.).
Business Customers
Enter professionals, the GTCs are optional but must be available on request.
Refusal of communication shall be punishable by €15,000 of fine.
The general terms and conditions of sale must contain the following information:
- Price HT: titleContent in euro: price lists or method of calculating the price.
- Discounts and rebates: price reductions, one-off promotional discounts and deferred rebates must be set according to precise and objective criteria.
- Trade discounts: discount given to a customer in case of early payment
- Terms of payment: permitted methods of payment and penalties for late payment
- Charges and delivery date
- Dispute resolution procedures: court of competent jurisdiction
You can also add a retention-of-title clause, a limitation of liability clause, a force majeure or the conditions for termination of the contract.
Please note
You have the right to impose Separate GTCs for each category of customers (wholesalers, retailers, etc.). In this case, the customers of a category may require the communication only of the GTCs which concern them.
The use of a website implies compliance with the obligations related to the protection of personal data netizens.
One personal data refers to any information relating to a natural person identified or identifiable, directly or indirectly, by an identifier or by one or more elements specific to his identity.
For example, it may be a surname, a first name, an e-mail address, a location, an identity card number, an IP address or a photo.
On your merchant site, you can collect this personal data to build customer files provided you respect the regulations in force.
Thus, beyond one general obligation of security and confidentiality personal data collected, you have 2 obligations to be respected:
- Inform the Internet user
- Obtain consent of the Internet user
FYI
France Num provides instructions for using the ensure that your client file complies with the GDPR.
Inform the user
The collection of personal data must be carried out in a transparent.
So, you must inform the user on your website at the time of data collection (e.g. when filling out a contact form) and in case of subsequent changes in their use.
You must provide the following information:
- Identity and contact details of the body responsible for computer data processing personal e.g. Data Protection Officer (DPO)
- Purpose of the processing : what the personal data collected will be used for
- Legal basis for processing : this may involve the consent of the user, compliance with an obligation provided for by a legal text, the performance of a contract, etc.
- Mandatory or optional collection of personal data : the consequences for the Internet user in the event of non-provision of the data.
- Recipients of personal data : who will receive and access the data.
- Retention period for personal data
- Rights of the Internet user : the right to refuse the collection, the right to access, rectify and erase his data.
- Right of the Internet user to lodge a complaint with the Cnil: titleContent
- Where necessary, the transfer of personal data to a non-EU country
Information must be provided in a concise, transparent, comprehensible and easily accessible manner, in clear and simple terms.
Warning
Failure to provide such information shall be punishable by a fine of €1,500.
On your website, you can use a link directly to the data protection policy, clearly visible on each page of the website, clearly labeled (“Personal data” or “Privacy” for example).
This privacy policy must be separate from the general terms and conditions of sale (GTC) of the website.
Obtain user consent
There are situations in which the information of the user alone is not enough.
You have to do more obtain consent when you do any of the following:
- Sending commercial emails (newsletter): you must obtain the explicit consent of the user unless he has already purchased a similar product in your company or it is a professional.
You must also give it the means to refuse the receipt of new advertisements by offering an unsubscribe at the end of the email. - Use of cookies : these are plotters that analyze the navigation, the movements and the habits of consultation or consumption of the Internet user to allow the display of targeted advertisements.
You must allow the user to consent by a clear positive act : a request for consent made through check boxes is easily understood by users. The use of a pre-ticked box presuming the consent of the person is prohibited.
The silence of persons, which may be achieved by simply continuing their navigation, must be interpreted as a refusal.
You must also allow the user to to make a choice by purpose : it is recommended to allow the user to give his consent independently and specifically for each purpose (customer management, satisfaction survey, prospecting operation, etc.).
It is possible to propose to the user to consent in a global manner to a set of purposes, by integrating buttons “Accept All” or “Deny All”, but only if the set of purposes is presented beforehand.
Warning
Computer processing of data collected without consent is punishable by 5 years' imprisonment and €300,000 of fine.
Since 1er june 2023, you must provide the consumer with a free feature that allows them to to terminate his subscription contract electronically. This obligation applies even if the original contract was not concluded electronically.
In practice, this functionality must be directly and easily accessible from your website (or mobile application) on which the contracts are concluded.
Please note
FranceNum explains why this “3-click” termination is an opportunity for your company.
Mandatory particulars
Feature must be listed as “ terminate your contract or under a similar unambiguous formula and displayed in legible characters.
In addition, the functionality must provide information about the conditions of termination contracts (e.g. existence of notice period or termination indemnity, consequences of termination, etc.).
Warning
The absence of the termination feature on your website is punishable by a fine of €15,000.
Consumer identification
The functionality must allow the consumer to provide or confirm the accuracy of the following information :
- The name and surname of the consumer, or if the contract has been concluded with a legal person, its reason or corporate name
- The e-mail address or, failing this, the postal address enabling you to confirm receipt of the notification of the termination
- Any reference you have previously provided to the contract holder to identify that contract holder and the contract concerned (e.g. a customer or contract number)
- The desired termination date subject to applicable legal or contractual provisions
- Where the termination concerns a telephone subscription, the telephone number corresponding to the line or lines concerned by the termination.
After providing or confirming this information, the consumer must be able to access a summary page enabling it to verify and, where appropriate, modify the information provided.
Furthermore, where the consumer wishes to terminate his contract early (before the expiry date), he must provide a legitimate reason. In this case, the feature must mention a email address and one postal address to which the proof may be sent. You can also add a feature that allows the consumer to submit their proof of termination in dematerialized form.
Example :
For example, the consumer may terminate in anticipation its internet subscription contract if it is subject to a over-indebtedness. The feature should allow it to transmit the decision of the judge welcoming its request to deal with situations of over-indebtedness.
Notification of termination
The consumer must be able to notify you of the termination of the contract by activating a function, directly accessible from the summary page of its information.
This function must be presented with the words “notice of terminationor a similar unambiguous formula displayed in legible characters.
When the consumer notifies you of the termination of the contract, you must confirm receipt of the notification and inform him, on a durable support and, within a reasonable time, the effects of the termination and the date on which the contract ends.
Please note
At the stage of notification of termination, you should not tax to the consumer of create custom space to access the Termination feature. Instead, you can ask them to use the custom space they would have created earlier (for example, when the contract was signed).
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
Directorate-General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention (DGCCRF)
If you want to report a difficulty encountered with a merchant
On the Internet
You can use the site Conso Signal.
The DGCCRF and the merchant concerned will be informed of your request.
By telephone
0809 540 550
No surtax number
Hours of operation:
- Monday and Tuesday: from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm and from 1:15 pm to 5:15 pm
- Wednesday: 13:15 to 17:15
- Thursday: from 8:30 to 12:30
- Friday: from 8:30 am to 4 pm
By mail
DGCCRF - ResponseConso - BP 60 - 34935 Montpellier Cedex 9
General obligation to provide pre-contractual information
Obligation to provide pre-contractual information
Penalties for the general obligation to provide pre-contractual information
Penalties for human rights violations resulting from computer files or processing (legislative part)
Penalties for human rights violations resulting from computer files or processing (regulatory part)
General principles of electronic commerce
Communication to the public online
Craftsman's status and entry in the trade register
Industrial and commercial profits
Online service
France Num
National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil)
National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil)