Is your website legal? Do you know if you are breaking the law, or contravening the Terms of Service (TOS) of any 3rd-party companies whose products or services you are promoting or advertising?
Internet laws and regulations are designed to protect consumers and apply to any person who markets, sells or promotes goods or services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law won’t prevent someone from taking legal action against you.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, then you need to follow certain disclosure guidelines to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory agencies, such as the US-based BBB, or Better Business Bureau. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet to learn more.
(Better Business Bureau)
These laws affect various online business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, like text link ads, Google Adsense, etc.
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketers
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
If your website does not display certain pages (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy statement, financial disclaimers, etc.), many sites such as Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank will not allow you to list digital products, PayPal could shut down your account, Facebook could disapprove web applications, and you won’t be accepted into various advertising and online merchant networks.
If your online business is not compliant, you could end up facing a number of penalties, including fines, having your website shut down, even jail time!
The purpose of this guide is to make you aware that your website(s) are required to comply with legal requirements according to laws that govern business practices online, the importance of maintaining compliance with the terms of service of external providers whose products or services you may be selling on your website, and that there are solutions for WordPress that can help your sites become fully compliant, such as the tools listed further below.
Does Your Site Comply With The Law?
Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we are not providing legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and consult legal experts about the best way of ensuring that your website is compliant with all laws wherever your business is located.
Why Having A Compliant Website Is Important
Are you at risk? Consider what the implications to your business would be in the following scenarios:
- Someone has a cardiac arrest after they use your online workout program.
- The skin cream you sell as an affiliate gives a number of users allergic reactions.
- You’ve told your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not spelled out exactly what you plan to do with it.
- Someone steals content from your website and puts it up on their website.
- There is no statement on your site making your site users aware that you are recommending a product as an affiliate that you could receive an affiliate commission if they purchase it.
- You don’t spell out the terms and conditions of your return policies.
- A visitor claims your testimonials are fake and decides to sue you as a result.
- You did not disclose in a product review that you received a free copy of the product.
- Your site includes adult content and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider also the following actual examples of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would be required to give up their personal information (including credit card details to complete his offer. Cost = $390,000.
- A social networking app developer was slapped with a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing private details about children.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape Users IDs. Many internet marketers gambled that they could get away with it 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% were breaking at least one of Google’s policies, more than 65% were in violation of at least 2 of Google’s policies, and more than 40% were in breach of at least three 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 to the Google program whose policies with the infringement, 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 through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA or PPA Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdSense Publisher
- Niche Publisher
- Amazon Affiliate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Adult Content Publisher
- Freelancer, Coach or Consultant
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
It’s vitally important to ensure that your online business is legally compliant.
Compliance With Third-Party Companies
Big companies and government agencies that regulate trade in various countries emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and professional guidelines. This not only increases trust and confidence in your business, it’s also a requirement of many companies you will 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)
Making money online with your website with 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 sell information-based products with merchants such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established merchant networks, you will need to add various legal pages before they will approve your products for selling via their network …
(Policy requirements for vendors using ClickBank)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially if you plan to sell products or services online with the aid of product testimonials or endorsements …
(FTC – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations Require Your Website To Comply
FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many business are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this typically results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting website owners for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you do any kind of selling online, therefore, it’s best not to take any chances. Even if your business does not operate in the U.S. you should protect your business by making sure that your website complies with FTC regulations.
You can find many sites that can provide guidelines and examples for structuring disclaimers and disclosures to help your business meet FTC requirements. See the additional references and useful resources section at the end of this article for more information …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications Also Have Compliance Requirements
If you are planning to develop applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide sites like Facebook, Twitter, and others with information about various legal pages …
(Facebook developer app – policy requirements)
- If you are unsure whether or not you may be breaking the law, and/or Terms of Service policies and guidelines of service providers like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that you most probably are.
- If you are considering promoting anything online using affiliate marketing, or make money online with Google AdSense, Amazon, or eBay advertising, or use Google AdWords pay-per-click ads 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 all Terms Of Service and policy requirements to avoid having your accounts shut down.
- If you’ve been wondering if “borrowing” a Copyright Notice is Copyright infringement, take proper precautions to avoid becoming a litigation magnet.
(In addition to legal and regulatory compliance, almost all third-party services require you to comply with their terms of use and policies)
What Compliance Information Do You Need To Add To Your Site To Be Compliant?
If you suspect that your website is falling short in areas of compliance, then you will find this section helpful.
Adding the following compliance pages to your site should help your site keep out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and third-party service providers, and help to avoid possible legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms And Conditions
- Website Disclaimer Pages
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
As well as the above pages, you may want to consider including any of these compliance pages:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you sell products or services through an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Linking Policy
- Health Disclaimers (e.g. if your website or blog provides health or medical advice)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Video/Audio Terms Of Use (e.g. if you allow media downloads on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
It’s important to add the correct types of disclosure pages to your site. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets visitors be aware that you will not receive compensation for writing the post.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to site users that you will be compensated if they buy through an affiliate link.
- Review Or Sample Copy – Informs your visitors that you have been given a review or sample copy of the product you’re reviewing.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that lets your readers be aware that you were compensated in some form to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs users that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to comply with the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
How To Add Legal Pages Content To Your WordPress Site
Ideally, you will consult lawyers and ask them to prepare the verbiage of your legal documents. Once these have been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Upload Legal Web Pages To Your Site
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 site, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend creating a legals directory on your web server and uploading HTML pages containing your legal documentation to this directory (e.g. via FTP) …
(Create a ‘legals’ folder on your web server and upload pages using FTP)
You can then add a link to these legal pages in WordPress using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
After uploading your legal pages, make sure that these are up-to-date and clearly visible to visitors. You can insert these into your sidebar menu (or the footer of your website or blog) to ensure that users will be able to access the information from every web page …
(It’s important to display links to your legal information on all of your website’s pages)
For a detailed step-by-step tutorial about adding links to pages on your WordPress sidebar, see this tutorial:
Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable internet forms and agreements by searching online, or visiting sites like this one:
Find Legal Forms
(Find Legal Forms – Legal forms)
To learn more, go here:
Another option is to download a set of cut and paste website legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to help businesses protect themselves online …
Cut & Paste Website Legal Pages
(Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages)
These templates were created by an attorney and feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be easily customized with a simple quick search and replace to add your own business details, then pasted into your pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Website Legal Forms include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- Federal Trade Commission Compliance (This proprietary FTC page accommodates FTC regulations and guidelines brought into effect in 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & 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 website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload these to your server as described earlier.
More information:
WordPress Legal Plugins
In addition to using legal templates, you can simplify things using WordPress plugins.
Here are some plugins for WordPress users worth looking into:
WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress)
If the idea of manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider installing a plugin like WordPress Legal Pages instead …
WordPress Legal Pages is not a free plugin, but it’s a very affordable and well-supported plugin that will simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your site and save you time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – Includes over 20 built-in legal page templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can set up most of your basic legal pages in around 3 minutes with a few mouse clicks.
- Customizable Pages – Includes fully customizable and easily editable legal form templates (e.g. ToS, Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WYSIWYG editor lets you edit all legal pages just like any other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes – Add shortcodes to your website or blog pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your pages when published.
- Exclude pages. Exclude pages from menus with a simple check box and delete and manage these like any WP page.
- Forced Options – Force page or post lock down. When users agree to the terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – More features get added to this plugin with every new version.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu feature will be added to your dashboard area …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Legal Pages Menu)
This lets you create, edit and view legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Screen)
The plugin gives you the option of creating legal pages for different types of websites, such as business websites, review sites, medical sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages – Type of Site dropdown menu)
You can also select from a number of built-in legal templates …
(WP Legal Pages Plugin – 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
For more details about the benefits of using this WordPress plugin, visit the plugin website:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Website Compliance Plugin
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over twenty customizable legal page templates for your online presence …
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro)
Legal Suite Pro 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 Service
- 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 secured rights to high quality, professionally written legal disclaimers and packaged them into a plugin that can be installed quickly on any WordPress site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less 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).
For more information, go here:
If hiring legal experts to create your legal pages is out of your budget, then consider implementing at least some basic type of legal protection on your website until you can afford a lawyer.
We want your business to be protected!
Download the FREE Legal Pages Generator software below, or consider choosing one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-drafted legal documentation, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator)
Legal Pages Generator allows you to quickly generate necessary legal documents for your website including Terms of Service, Privacy Statement, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
***
As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online, you need to make sure that your site remains compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) required by third-party services and products that you may be promoting or endorsing online. If your website isn’t compliant with laws designed to protect the rights of 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, we are not lawyers and we do not provide legal advice in this article. You must do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert to ensure that your website is compliant with all legal requirements in your country or region.
Additional Resources
Below is a useful list of sites we recommend you visit to better understand what your website may require to stay compliant and meet 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 Website
- 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
- US Copyright Office
And …
- Google Analytics Help – Policy requirements for Google Analytics Advertising Features
- Google AdSense Program Policies Explained
- 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 legally compliant website. Use the information provided above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog using simple methods, resources and WordPress plugins.
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com