One of the worst predicaments a business owner can find themselves in is to break the law.
Online laws, regulations, and guidelines are designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who sells, markets or promotes goods or services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about legal requirements won’t excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.
Recent laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for commercial gain, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection agencies, such as the Better Business Bureau, also referred to as the BBB. Look up “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau Website)
The new laws has legal ramifications for various business categories, including:
- Any form of advertising, including contextual advertising
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creators
- Bloggers
- etc.
If you do not display certain legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, earning disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank or JVZoo will not allow you to list your digital products for sale, PayPal could suspend your account and withhold payment of your funds, Facebook could disapprove your applications, and you won’t be allowed to enroll in most advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
If your business online is not compliant, you could also end up facing a whole range of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this post is to make you aware that your website may be required to comply with legal requirements, the importance of complying with the terms of service of other providers whose services or products you may be recommending online, and that there are solutions that can help your online properties become fully compliant, such as the tools discussed further below.
Is Your Website Breaking Rules Or Regulations?
Legal Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice. Do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all laws pertaining to your business.
Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant
Are you at risk? Consider for a moment what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- A user has a heart attack after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives someone skin rashes.
- Your opt-in list displays a statement informing subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you haven’t described exactly what you plan to do with their details.
- Someone copies content from your website and publishes it on their own website.
- There is no statement on your website making visitors aware that you are marketing a product as an affiliate that you could get paid a sales commission if they purchase through your link.
- You haven’t spelled out the terms of your return policies.
- Visitors claim that your testimonials are false and decide to sue you because of it.
- You did not disclose that you were given a free copy of the product in your review.
- Your site contains adult information and you did not take sufficient measures to restrict access by underage persons.
Consider also these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling visitors they would have to give up their personal information to complete an offer they were promoting. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, they’re now required to issue everyone they do business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information from mobile device address books without the owners’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of $$$ in lost revenue.
- An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked at random, more than 90% had breached at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had breached at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of at least 3 of Google’s policies. Although the website owners could technically be sued by Google, more than likely what could happen, is that they would be issued cautions or lose access entirely to the Google program whose policies with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).
Can you see how easy it is to risk being targeted for litigation?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
- Multilevel Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Info Product Marketer
- Amazon Affiliate
- EBay Seller
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service
It’s vitally important to ensure that your online business remains legally compliant.
Compliance With 3rd-Party Services Terms And Policies
Compliance with 3rd-party companies terms and policies is important.
You are expected to let your site users know that your business complies with legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only improves trust and confidence in your business, it’s also required by most companies you do business with.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires websites to display certain information if using their services. This includes using features such as Google Analytics …
(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)
Monetizing your website using Google AdSense …
(Google AdSense - policy requirements)
And even promoting your services using Google AdWords …
(Google AdWords – Policy Requirements)
If you plan to sell products online with companies like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add a number of legal pages before they will approve your products for sale in their networks …
(Policy requirements for using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and disclosures to visitors, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer policies and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Site To Comply
FTC regulations governing how business is conducted online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As has already been the case, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any type of business online, therefore, it’s best not to take chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. we strongly recommend protecting your business interests by ensuring that your website is compliant with all FTC guidelines.
Various sites provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help you comply with FTC requirements. We provide additional references at the end of this article …
(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of laws and regulations)
Social Media Apps Also Require Compliance
If you plan to create applications for your website, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and many others with access to your legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure as to whether you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting products or services online as an affiliate marketer, or generate revenue online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay ads, or driving visitors to your site with Google AdWords, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you are required to provide on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered whether “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, then it’s best to act now and take proper precautions to avoid becoming a magnet for litigation.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, most 3rd-party services require you to comply with their terms of use)
What Compliance Information Do You Need To Add To Your Website To Be Legally Compliant?
If your web site is falling short in aspects of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website will help your business stay out of trouble with many regulatory agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us
- Contact Page
- Privacy Statement
- Terms And Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the above, you may want to look into adding any of these pages where applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Compensation Disclosure
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website provides financial advice)
- Refund Policy (if you run an e-commerce site)
- Audio/Video Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow users to download videos or audio files on your site)
Types Of Disclosure Pages
Adding the right type of web content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets your visitors know that you are not being paid for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Lets readers be aware that you may derive some form of financial or similar type of benefit if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
- Sample/Review Copy – Lets site users be aware that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs your readers that you were compensated in some form to write the article.
- Third Party Advertising – Lets readers know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring website publishers to show prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages To Your Website
Ideally, you should consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Pages Manually To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal content for you in typical web page format (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload these pages for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory using FTP …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to your pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu feature …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are fully up-to-date and clearly accessible to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to the WordPress sidebar (or the footer section of your website) to ensure that visitors will be able to access the information from every page …
(Display links to your legal pages on all of your website’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial about adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar here:
Store-Bought Legal Templates
You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted disclosures and website forms and agreements by searching online, or by going to sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
To learn more, go here:
Another option is to download a package of website legal templates created by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)
These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business name and URL, then pasted into your pages.
The legal forms included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Page Templates include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects FTC regulations and guidelines that came into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service & Conditions of Use: includes inter- & intra-page redundancy, Contra Proferentem provision, reservation of rights, and exclusive social media admonition.
You can either create a new WordPress page for each legal form you want added to your site, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as described previously.
Go here for more info:
Legal Pages – WordPress Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can keep things very simple by using plugins.
Here are some legal WordPress plugins that you may be interested in checking out:
WP Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)
If the idea of creating legal pages manually feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing WP Legal Pages …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported premium plugin that will make the work of creating and implementing legal pages on your site much easier and save you loads of headaches.
Some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages are:
- Built-in Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – Set up most of the legal pages you will need in a few minutes with just a few clicks of the mouse.
- Fully Customizable Pages – Includes customizable and editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Earnings Disclaimer, Privacy Policy and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit all legal pages like any page on your site.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content when published.
- Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple checkbox and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When the user agrees to the legal terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
- Additional Features – More features get added to this plugin with each new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature is added to your navigation section …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Settings)
You have the option of creating legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Create different legal pages)
You can also select from various pre-configured legal templates …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Built-In Legal Templates)
Legal page templates include:
- Terms of Use (Users are forced to agree to Terms and Conditions before using site)
- Linking Policy
- External Links Policy
- Terms and Conditions
- Refund Policy
- Affiliate Disclosure
- Privacy Policy
- Affiliate Agreement
- Facebook Privacy Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- Antispam Policy
- DoubleClick DART Cookies Policy
- Disclaimer Template
- FTC Disclosure Statement Template
- Medical Disclaimer Template
- Testimonials Disclosure – As per FTC guidelines
- Amazon Affiliate Disclosure Template
- DMCA Policy Template
- California Privacy Rights Policy Template
- Digital Goods Refund Policy Template
- COPPA – Children’s Online Privacy Policy Template
- Blog Comments Policy Template
- Newsletter Subscription Policy and Disclaimer Template
- FTC Disclaimer Widget
Go here to learn more about this plugin:
Compliance Bar Plugin – Compliance Plugin For WordPress
Compliance Bar Plugin is a total compliance and disclaimer solution for your digital presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress lets you easily install professionally-written legal pages such as:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance
- Privacy Policy
- Social Media Disclosure
- Medical Disclaimer
- Terms & Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress – Professionally-written legal forms)
Additionally:
- Drag & Drop FTC Disclaimer Widget: Add an FTC Disclaimer to any WordPress sidebar or widget area.
- Customizable EU Cookie Compliance Bar: Display an EU cookie compliance bar if you are getting traffic from the EU and your sites use cookies.
With just one-click you can install almost all of the legal pages your site needs and these professionally written legal pages can be created in your theme and/or as a standalone page outside of your theme.
The plugin developers secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress powered site. You can have legal pages installed and set up on your site in less than one minute and the license allows you to install and use the plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
To learn more, visit this website:
If hiring a lawyer to create your legal pages is currently out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some form of legal protection on your website until you can afford legal services.
We want your business to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using legal page templates, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator Software lets you easily generate basic legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and Earnings Disclaimer.
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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you engage in any form of commercial activity online (or plan to), it’s important that your site is found to comply with all government laws and regulations and the terms of service (TOS) and guidelines required by third-party products and services that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website doesn’t comply with laws designed to protect consumers, you’re breaking the law.
Being non-compliant puts you at risk of suffering both financial losses and the loss of your reputation. Why risk your money and reputation, when you can protect yourself so inexpensively?
Disclaimer: Once again, please note that we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice on our website. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way to ensure that your website is compliant with the law pertaining to your specific business.
Resources
Here is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet its legal requirements and guidelines:
- Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- FTC Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
- FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
- Better Business Bureau
- Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising
- Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act
- CAN-SPAM Act Guide
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
- FTC Regulatory Review Web Page
- FTC Rules and Guides Currently Under Review
- The Department of Commerce Internet Policy Task Force – Commercial Data Privacy and Innovation in the Internet Economy: A Dynamic Policy Framework
- FTC Staff Report: Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising
- FTC Final Guides Governing Endorsements and Testimonials
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- United States Copyright Office
Additionally …
- Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- Google AdSense Help – Required Content
- Google AdWords – Information Collection And Use
- Google AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
- ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
- Facebook Platform Policies
Hopefully, this article has helped you understand why it’s important to have a compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly add legal pages to your site using simple methods and resources.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)