Details the law requires on your website

About this guide

We build websites, we are not lawyers. This is an overview of what is normally expected of a Swedish business website, so that you know what to look for. If something particular applies to your trade, or you sell to consumers at any scale, check with someone who knows that field.

If you run a limited company

The Swedish Companies Act sets out what a limited company must state on its website. Three details:

• The company name, meaning the registered one.
• The company registration number.
• The locality where the board has its registered office.

It is enough that the details appear on the site, for instance in the footer or on a contact page. They do not have to be on every page as such, but the footer is the simplest place because it travels everywhere.

If the company is in liquidation, that must be stated as well.

If you run a sole trader or partnership

The Companies Act does not apply, but the Swedish E-Commerce Act does. In practice it covers anyone offering services through a website, and it requires that it be easy to find out:

• The name of whoever runs the business.
• An address.
• An email address, or some other route that lets people make contact quickly.
• The registration number, if the business is registered.
• The VAT number, if the company is VAT registered.
• Any licence and supervisory authority, if the trade requires one.

The requirement is that the details be easy to find. A contact form with nothing else is not enough.

If you collect personal data

If you have a contact form you are collecting personal data, which means GDPR applies. You need a privacy policy answering:

• Which data is collected and why.
• How long it is kept.
• Who gets to see it, including suppliers who store it for you.
• What rights the visitor has and how to use them.

The policy has to be reachable from wherever the data is handed over, meaning at the form, not only far down in the footer.

If you use analytics

Analytics tools such as Google Analytics set cookies that are not necessary for the site to work. Those require prior consent under the rules on electronic communications. Three things apply:

• The question must be asked before the tool loads, not at the same time.
• Saying no must be as easy as saying yes.
• The choice must be changeable afterwards.

A banner that merely says “by continuing you accept cookies” does not meet that.

If you sell to consumers

If you sell goods or services directly to private individuals through the site, more follows: prices must be shown including VAT, and for distance contracts the consumer generally has fourteen days to withdraw, with exceptions you need to know for your particular service. If you only sell to other businesses, none of that applies.

A checklist to work through

• Company name and registration number appear on the site
• Registered office, for a limited company
• VAT number, if you are VAT registered
• A contact route that is quick, not only a form
• A privacy policy, reachable from the form
• A cookie choice that asks before analytics start and can be changed
• Prices including VAT, if you sell to private individuals

Seven lines. Most sites manage four or five, and the ones missing are usually the registration number and a real cookie question.

What the site should contain otherwise is in what a business website should contain. Our own privacy policy and terms are there to read as an example of how it can look.