Tag: Website Legal Compliance

If you plan to grow a successful business online, you do not want to learn the hard way that you are doing something illegal.

Internet laws and regulations are designed to protect the rights of consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Every website owner risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t excuse you from being slapped with a legal notice.

New laws introduced in 2014 regulating how businesses promote advertising on their sites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by consumer protection departments, such as the (US based) BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online for information about “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.

(Better Business Bureau)

The introduction of these laws has legal ramifications for various business categories, including:

• Any form of advertising, like PPC advertising
• Retarget Marketing
• Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
• Affiliate Marketers
• Product Creation
• Blogging
• etc.

If your website does not display certain legal pages (e.g. terms of service, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, digital marketplaces like ClickBank won’t allow you to list digital products on their network, PayPal may suspend your account, Facebook could suspend your applications, and you will not be allowed into most advertising or affiliate merchant networks.

If your online business is not compliant, you could also face a multitude of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!

This article explains the importance of having a legally compliant website and presents inexpensive resources and solutions to help make your WordPress site compliant.

Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?

Legal Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we cannot offer legal advice on this website. You must do your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with the law regarding your specific business.

Why It’s Important To Make Your Website Compliant

Is your business at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be if these situations were to take place:

• A person suffers a heart attack after purchasing your online fitness workout.
• The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate marketer gives people allergic reactions.
• You’ve let your subscribers know that you won’t sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you will do with their details.
• Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their site.
• You haven’t informed your site visitors that you’re an affiliate for the product you’re selling that you could receive an affiliate commission if visitors purchase it.
• You don’t spell out the conditions of your return policies.
• Visitors claim that the testimonials on your site are all fake and try to sue you as a result.
• You haven’t disclosed that you received a free copy of the product in your review.
• Your website includes adult content and you didn’t take sufficient measures to keep underaged children from accessing it.

Consider now these actual examples of costly compliance breaches:

• A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information (including credit card info to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
• A social networking app developer received a whopping $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private information about children.
• Facebook’s Terms Of Service prohibits users from scraping UIDs. Many marketers took a risk and lost. Their accounts were shut down, costing them thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
• An independently-conducted study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites chosen at random, more than 90% had broken at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% had broken at least two of Google’s policies, and more than 40% had broken 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 with the violation, which could result in loss of income (e.g. AdSense or AdWords).

Can you see how easy it is to risk becoming targeted for litigation?

Regardless of whether you are a:

• CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPC (Cost Per Conversion) Marketer
• Multilevel Marketer
• Affiliate Product Promoter
• AdWords Advertiser
• Product Marketer
• Amazon Affiliate
• EBay Seller
• Adult Content Publisher
• Provider Of Freelance, Consulting Or Coaching Services
• Online Seller Of Any Product Or Service

It’s imperative to ensure that your website has the right legal pages and information displayed to all you site visitors.

Complying With Third-Party Services

Leading online companies and government agencies that regulate trade in most countries emphasize the importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.

You must let your site users know that your website complies will all laws and recommended guidelines. This not only improves trust and buyer confidence in your website, it’s also a requirement of most companies you will interact with online.

For example:

Google requires your site to display certain information if using many of their services and product features. This includes using Google Analytics …

(Policy requirements for using Google Analytics)

Earning revenue with your websites using Google AdSense ads …

(Google AdSense online advertising - policy requirements)

Or promoting your products or services using Google AdWords …

(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)

If you plan to sell digital products through places like ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant networks, you are required to add legal pages to your website before your products are approved for sale …

(Policy requirements for vendors selling via ClickBank)

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to add clear disclaimers and disclosures on your website, especially regarding the use of testimonials or product endorsements …

(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)

FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Be Compliant

New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. A quick search online will easily reveal that many websites are unaware (or choose to ignore) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically ends up with the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies in an effort to get other businesses to comply.

If you plan to do any kind of money-making activity online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business is not located in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your site complies with all FTC guidelines.

There are many online resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help you meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references and links to useful resources at the end of this article …

(Structuring your disclaimers and disclosures correctly is important to avoid running foul of the law)

Don’t Forget Social Media Applications

If you are planning to develop applications for your website, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others will require you to provide access to your legal pages …

(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)

• If you are not sure whether you are breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of companies like Google, Facebook, etc., then you most probably are.
• If you plan to promote anything online via affiliate marketing, or monetize your pages with Google AdSense, eBay or Amazon advertising, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, 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 - don’t risk having your accounts suspended.
• If you have ever wondered if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to protect yourself and your website.

(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)

What Compliance Information Do I Need To Add To My Website To Be Legally Compliant?

If you suspect that your web site lacks in aspects of compliance, then this section will help you.

Adding the following legal pages to your website will help you stay out of trouble with many consumer protection agencies and 3rd-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues or even threats of legal action (e.g. “cease and desist” notices):

• About Us
• Contact Us
• Privacy Statement
• Terms & Conditions
• Disclaimer Pages
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance

In addition to the above, you may want to consider implementing any of the pages listed below:

• Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
• Anti-Spam Policy
• Earnings Disclaimer
• External Linking Policy
• Financial Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides general financial content)
• Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
• Media Terms (if you allow users to download media on your site)

Types Of Disclosure Pages

Adding the right type of disclosure to your site is important. For example:

• No Material Connection – Lets your readers be aware that you’re not receiving any type of compensation for writing the content.
• Affiliate Links – Informs users that you will benefit financially if they act on your recommendation and purchase through your affiliate link.
• Review Or Sample Copy – Explains to users that you have received a sample or review copy of the product or service you’re reviewing.
• Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your readers know that you have been compensated in some form to write the content.
• Third Party Advertising – Lets visitors know that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy 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 Compliance Pages To Your Site

Ideally, you will consult a lawyer and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once you have this completed, there are several ways to include them in your website.

Uploading Legal Web Pages Manually

If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you in standard web page formatting (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.

We recommend creating a legal folder on your server and uploading your legal pages to this directory via FTP …

(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your server and upload pages using FTP)

You can then add links to these pages in WordPress using custom links in your menu admin area …

(WordPress Menu)

Where To Display Legal Pages On Your Website

Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly visible to your visitors. You can add links to your legal pages to your sidebar (or the footer section of your website or blog) so that visitors will be able to access the information from every web page …

(It’s important to display legal information to visitors on all of your website’s pages)

For a detailed step-by-step tutorial on adding links to pages on your sidebar, see this tutorial:

• How To Add WordPress Widgets To Your Sidebar

Legal Templates

You can easily find downloadable attorney-drafted website forms and agreements just by searching online, or by going to websites like the ones shown below:

Find Legal Forms

(Find Legal Forms)

Visit this website for more information:

• FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-prepared legal forms

Alternatively, you can download a package of cut and paste website legal templates drafted by attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …

Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages

(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages – Legal Templates)

Cut & Paste website legal pages feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a quick search and replace to insert your own business details, then pasted into your pages.

The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Form Templates include:

• Anti-Spam Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Disclaimer (multi-discipline professional disclaimers)
• DMCA Compliance
• FTC Compliance
• Privacy Policy: Google & DoubleClick DART, etc.
• Terms of Service (ToS) & Conditions of Use.

You can either create a new page for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your web pages and publish or upload your legal pages to your web server as previously described.

Visit this site to learn more:

• Website Legal Pages

WordPress Legal Page Plugins

In addition to using legal templates, you can keep things really simple using WordPress plugins.

Here are some WordPress plugins you should check out:

WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress

(WordPress Plugin – WordPress Legal Pages)

If creating legal pages manually seems too time-consuming for you, then consider using WordPress Legal Pages instead …

This plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably low-priced and well-supported plugin that will make the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your WordPress site much easier and save you a great deal of time.

Some of the benefits of using WP Legal Pages plugin are:

• Pre-written Legal Templates – Over 20 built-in legal page templates created by a team of professional lawyers.
• Very Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of the basic legal pages you need in around 3 minutes with just a few mouse clicks.
• Customizable Pages – The plugin includes customizable and easy to edit legal form templates (e.g. Terms of Use, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
• Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit legal pages like any WP page.
• Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your WordPress pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
• Exclude pages. The plugin lets you exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like every other WP page.
• Forced Options – Force page lockdown. When a user agrees to your terms, the page unlocks, giving them access.
• Additional Features – New plugin features get added when new versions are released.

When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a new menu item will display inside your main WordPress dashboard section …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)

This lets you view, create and edit your legal pages from the admin area …

(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Settings)

With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different types of sites, such as business websites with products, niche websites, AdSense sites, etc …

(WP Legal Pages Plugin – Page Type)

Choose from a number of built-in 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 the benefits of using this handy plugin:

• WordPress Legal Pages Plugin

Compliance Bar – Compliance Plugin For WordPress

Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress-powered sites containing over 20 customizable compliance page templates for your online presence …

Go here to learn more:

• Compliance Bar Plugin – WP Website Compliance Plugin

Legal Suite Pro

(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)

This plugin 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 of Use
• Earnings Disclaimer

(Legal Suite Pro – 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 have packaged high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers 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 one minute or less and the plugin licensing is very flexible, allowing you to install and use the plugin on all of your websites (even sites that you decide to sell).

More information:

• Legal Suite Pro

If using the services of a lawyer to create your legal documentation is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic form of legal protection on your website until you can afford to hire the services of a solicitor.

We want your business to be protected!

Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or use one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using ready-made legal templates, or plugins - see section below.

(Legal Pages Generator Software)

Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates basic legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.

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As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do any kind of business online (or plan to), you need to ensure that your site is found to comply with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online and the terms of service and guidelines of 3rd-party products and services that you may be promoting or advertising online. If your website isn’t compliant 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?

Legal Disclaimer: Once again, we are not lawyers and we are not offering legal advice here. Do your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements pertaining to your business.

References And Resources

Here is a time-saving list of additional sites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet legal obligations:

• Federal Trade Commission Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
• Federal Trade Commission Advertising & Marketing Rules Of the Road
• FTC Advertising And Marketing On The Internet
• BBB – Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program
• 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
• US Patent and Trademark Office
• United States Copyright Office

See Also …

• 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
• AdWords Help – What to include in your privacy policy for remarketing
• ClickBank – Creating Your First Product
• Facebook Platform Policies

We hope you have found this article useful and that it has helped you understand the importance of having a legally compliant website. Use the information presented above to quickly and easily add essential legal pages to your website using inexpensive solutions.

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