Over a third of UK Web sites branded illegal

More than a third of UK companies are breaking the law with their corporate Web sites, according to law firm Eversheds.

Company law rules that certain details - like a postal address - should be present on Web pages just as they are required for other company property such as stationary. In an audit of 106 UK Web sites, the firm found that most companies fail to comply with these regulations.

Other bad practices included the transferral of material from brochures to Web sites without due payment of copyrights and the issue of terms and conditions after a consumer has already entered their credit card details.

Andy Lucas, a solicitor at Eversheds, agreed that the offences might seem trivial, but he warned that complacency over the legal ramifications of their Web strategies could cause long-term problems. "It's a cut-throat world out there and if someone has got it in for a company, they can easily pick up on this sort of thing," he said.

Lucas claims the problem could escalate in the future: "People will become more sophisticated and once the press get hold of the subject it could get very sticky for offenders."

But there is no need to panic according to Neil Svensen, managing director of Web development company Rufus Leonard. He said: "Business law is way behind technology at the moment, and this sort of thing isn't happening anywhere apart from the US where weird and wonderful things like this happen all the time."

According to Svensen companies can relax until Web site legalities become a regulatory issue: "It will become real when all the regulatory bodies are getting into it."