Company details in business emails and on websites: what German and UK rules require

Why these rules exist

Customers, suppliers and courts need to know exactly which legal entity they are dealing with. A brand name on a website or email says little about whether the business is a sole trader, a limited company or one of several group entities, where it is registered or who represents it.

Company disclosure rules therefore require certain facts on business letters and, in many countries, on websites and order forms. Over time these rules were extended to electronic communication, so a sales email or a quote sent by email is treated like a letter on paper.

The requirements are easy to meet once built into templates. They are also easy to forget when new email tools, CRM sequences, shared inboxes or group companies are set up.

Germany: business letters include emails

German law requires specific information on business letters addressed to a particular recipient, in whatever form they are sent. Since the reforms that took effect in 2007, this is understood to include business emails. The detailed requirements depend on the legal form.

For a GmbH, section 35a of the Limited Liability Companies Act requires the legal form and registered office of the company, the register court and the commercial register number, and all managing directors with their surname and at least one first name written out in full. If the company has a supervisory board with a chair, the chair must also be named. Stock corporations have comparable requirements under the Stock Corporation Act, including members of the management board.

Registered merchants and partnerships have requirements under the Commercial Code, such as the firm name, the designation as a registered merchant or the legal form, the place of business, the register court and the register number.

Legal form and name

The full registered name including the legal form, such as GmbH.

Registered office

The seat of the company as registered.

Register details

The register court and commercial register number.

Managing directors

All managing directors with surname and at least one full first name.

Supervisory board chair

Where a supervisory board with a chair exists.

Germany: websites and the Impressum

German websites and online services offered commercially also need provider identification, commonly called the Impressum, under the Digital Services Act implementing law. It includes the name and address, legal form and authorised representatives for legal entities, rapid electronic contact details including an email address, register details and the VAT identification number where one exists, with additional information for regulated professions.

Missing or incomplete disclosures can lead to coercive fines by the register court for business letters and to warnings from competitors or associations for websites. Both are avoidable with correct templates.

United Kingdom: trading disclosures

In the UK, the Company, Limited Liability Partnership and Business (Names and Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2015 set out what companies must disclose. A company’s registered name must appear on its business letters, notices and other official publications, order forms, cheques, invoices and similar documents, and on its websites, including in electronic form.

Business letters, order forms and websites must also show the part of the United Kingdom in which the company is registered, such as England and Wales, the company’s registered number and its registered office address. Emails sent as business correspondence are generally treated as business letters for these purposes.

If a company refers to its share capital on these documents or websites, the reference must be to paid-up share capital. Companies must also disclose their registered office address and certain information to people they deal with in the course of business on request.

Where businesses get it wrong

The most common gap is email signatures. Individual employees create their own, marketing tools send emails with a brand footer but no legal details, and sales sequences in CRM systems use templates set up without company information. Replies from mobile devices may omit signatures entirely.

Group structures are another source of errors. A website or email may carry a brand name while contracts are concluded with a subsidiary whose details never appear. Where several entities use the same brand, the entity actually contracting or invoicing should be identified.

Changes are easily missed. When a managing director leaves, a company moves its registered office or converts to another legal form, every template, signature, website footer and document generator must be updated.

Building it into systems

Use central signature management for email so legal details are applied consistently, including to messages sent from mobile devices and shared inboxes. Configure footers in CRM, email marketing, help desk, e-signature and invoicing tools with the correct entity details, and keep one approved source of company information that templates reference.

Assign responsibility for updating details when company information changes, and include disclosure checks in launch checklists for new tools, websites and markets. Other countries have their own requirements, so check local rules when expanding. This article is a general overview and not legal advice.

Where this sits in what we do

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