The Legal Details Your Website Must Show

This is the least interesting article we will ever publish and one of the most useful, because the details below are cheap to add, awkward to be caught without, and missing from a remarkable number of small business websites.

None of it is about privacy or cookies — those are separate rules. This is about identifying your business to the people you sell to.

Why it exists

European e-commerce and services rules require anyone offering goods or services online to be identifiable. The reasoning is simple: a customer should be able to tell who they are dealing with, where that business is, and how to reach a human, before they hand over money.

It applies more widely than people assume. You do not need a shop. A one-page site advertising a plumbing service is offering a service, and the same identification duty applies.

What a Dutch business must show

• The registered company name, exactly as it appears in the Handelsregister — not just your trading name if they differ.
• The KVK number. This is the one most often missing, and it is the easiest to add.
• The VAT number (btw-identificatienummer) if you are VAT-registered. Note that sole traders have a separate btw-id for public use, distinct from the number tied to their personal identity — use the public one.
• A geographic address. A real establishment address, not only a PO box.
• Contact details, including an email address. A contact form alone is not enough: there must be a route that gets a direct reply.
• The legal form, and where relevant that it is in liquidation.
• Supervisory or professional body details, if your profession is regulated.

For a webshop, add price clarity including VAT, delivery costs, the order process, the right of withdrawal for consumers, and how to exercise it.

What a Spanish business must show

Spain's LSSI-CE sets a similar list:

• Name or company name, and NIF (tax identification number).
• Registered address in Spain.
• Contact details, including an email address.
• Commercial register data — the Registro Mercantil entry with volume, folio and sheet, where the company is registered there.
• Professional body, qualifications and authorisation details for regulated professions.
• Price information including whether taxes and delivery are included.

Sole traders (autónomos) have a lighter but real obligation: identify yourself, your NIF and a contact route.

The overlap and the simple answer

The lists differ in detail and agree in substance: say who you are, where you are, and how to reach you. If you trade in both countries, publish the union of the two lists. Nobody has ever been penalised for being too identifiable.

Where to put it

Two places, and it takes ten minutes.

In the footer, on every page. Company name, KVK or NIF, VAT number, address, email, phone. This is the single most effective placement because it satisfies "easily, directly and permanently accessible" without anyone having to hunt.

On a dedicated page, linked from that footer, with the fuller version: legal form, register entry, supervisory bodies, and links to your terms, privacy statement and cookie policy.

Two mistakes to avoid. Do not put the details only in an image — a screen reader cannot read it, and neither can someone copying your VAT number. And do not hide the address because you work from home. If that genuinely concerns you, the usual answer is a registered business address service, which is inexpensive and legitimate; simply omitting it is not an option.

The documents that go with it

Distinct things that often get muddled:

• Terms and conditions (algemene voorwaarden / condiciones generales) — the rules of your commercial relationship. Not legally mandatory for every business, but they only apply if the customer could see them before agreeing, so a link in the footer and a checkbox at checkout is the pattern.
• Privacy statement — mandatory whenever you process personal data, which includes a contact form. Separate article.
• Cookie policy — what you set and why. Often folded into the privacy statement, which is fine.
• Right of withdrawal — for consumer sales, the 14-day cooling-off period and the model form.

A five-minute audit

Open your own site and check:

1. Can you find the company's full legal name without using the contact page?
2. Is the KVK or NIF number visible on the page you are on right now?
3. Is there a real email address, not only a form?
4. Is there a street address?
5. Are the terms, privacy statement and cookie policy all reachable in one click from the footer?
6. Can you select and copy the VAT number, or is it baked into an image?

Anything you answer no to is between five and thirty minutes of work.

Why bother, honestly

Enforcement is not the main reason, although the obligation is real and consumer authorities do act on complaints.

The better reason is that this information is what a cautious buyer looks for. Someone about to send you a few thousand euros will check whether you are a registered company with a real address. A site with a KVK number, a physical address and a phone number reads as a business. A site with only a form reads as a risk. The details cost nothing and they are quietly doing sales work every day.

This is a practical summary, not legal advice. Requirements differ by legal form and sector — check with your accountant, the KVK, or a lawyer for your situation.