As a business owner, the last thing you want is to learn the hard way that you have broken the law.
Internet laws and regulations were designed to protect consumers and apply to anyone who markets, sells or promotes products and services online. Anyone who owns a website risks being sued for not following compliance laws. Feigning ignorance about the law will not prevent you from being slapped with a legal notice.
New laws introduced in 2014 to regulate how businesses promote advertising on their websites clearly state that if you promote anything on your website for profit, you will need to follow certain principles of disclosure to prevent enforceable orders being issued against you by regulatory departments, such as the (US based) Better Business Bureau, also called the BBB. Search online “The Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program,” which regulates behavioral advertising across the internet for more details.
(Online Interest-Based Advertising Accountability Program – BBB)
The introduction of new laws affect several online business activities, including:
- Any form of advertising, e.g. Google AdWords or AdSense
- Retarget Marketing
- Google Analytics (or other analytics software)
- Affiliate Marketing
- Product Creation
- Blogging
- etc.
Without legal pages on your web site (e.g. terms and conditions of use, privacy policy, financial disclaimers, etc.), many third-party sites like Google won’t let you advertise, sites like ClickBank won’t allow you to sell digital products, PayPal could close down your account, Facebook could reject web applications, and you will not be allowed into a number of advertising and affiliate merchant networks.
You could also be inadvertently leaving yourself open and vulnerable to litigation.
The purpose of this article is to help make you aware that your website are subject to legal requirements in accordance with the laws that govern your business, the importance of remaining compliant with the terms of service of 3rd-party providers whose services or products you may be endorsing on your website, and that there are solutions that can help your website become more compliant, such as the plugins discussed further below.
Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?
Disclaimer: Please note that we are not lawyers and we do not offer legal advice. You must carry out your own due diligence and we recommend consulting legal experts about the best way to ensure that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever you do business.
Why Ensuring That Your Website Is Compliant Is Important
Consider what the implications to your business would be if any of the situations below were to occur:
- A person suffers a cardiac arrest after using your online fitness workout.
- The skin care lotion you sell as an affiliate gives people allergic reactions.
- You’ve informed your subscribers that you will not sell their information, but you have not clearly spelled out what you plan to do with it.
- Someone steals your content and publishes it on their own site.
- There is no statement on your site informing your site visitors that you are promoting a product as an affiliate that you may get paid a commission if they buy it.
- You have not spelled out the conditions of your refund policies.
- A visitor claims that the testimonials on your site are all fake and decides to sue you because of it.
- You haven’t disclosed in a product review that you were given a free copy of the product.
- Your website publishes adult-related content and you have not taken sufficient measures to restrict access by underage children.
Consider now these real case studies of costly compliance breaches:
- A CPA Marketer failed to provide adequate disclaimers telling online users they would have to give up their personal information to complete his offer. In addition to a hefty $390,000 fine, he is now required to issue everyone he does business with for the next 20 years, a copy of the judgement — including employees.
- A social networking app developer copped a massive $800,000 fine for collecting personal information without users’ knowledge and consent – including storing children’s private details.
- Facebook’s Terms Of Service does not allow users to scrape UIDs. Many marketers gambled that they could get away with it and lost. Their accounts were shut down, resulting thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
- An independent study by Brad Geddes of SearchEngineLand, showed that, of a couple of hundred websites picked 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% were in violation 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 with warnings or lose access entirely 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 being a target of litigation through non-compliance?
Regardless of whether you are a:
- CPA (Cost Per Action) Marketer
- Network Marketer
- Affiliate Product Promoter
- AdWords Advertiser
- Info Product Publisher
- Amazon Associate
- e-Commerce Store Owner
- Publisher Of Adult Content
- Provider Of Freelance, Coaching Or Consulting Services
- Seller Of Any Product Or Service Online
You need to ensure that your website or blog complies with all laws and regulations governing the use of your site, wherever you are located.
Complying With Third-Party Services - ToS, Policies, etc.
All of the big websites and government trade regulatory agencies emphasize the need and importance of observing the terms and policies of service providers.
You must let your site visitors know that your business complies will all legal requirements and recommended guidelines. This not only improves consumer trust and buyer confidence in your site, it’s also required in many cases by most companies you engage with online.
Here are just some examples:
Google requires you to display legal information when using their products or features. This includes Google Analytics …
(Google Analytics – Policy Requirements)
Monetizing your website using Google AdSense ads …
(Google AdSense ads policy requirements)
And even promoting your services or products using Google AdWords …
(Policy requirements for using Google AdWords)
If you plan to sell digital products using places such as ClickBank, JVZoo, or other established online merchant sites, you will be required to add certain legal pages to your site before they will approve your products for sale …
(Policy requirements for ClickBank vendors)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also requires you to include clear disclaimers and policy statements on your site, especially when using testimonials or product endorsements …
(Federal Trade Commission – consumer guidelines and regulations)
FTC Regulations – Ensure That Your Website Is Compliant
New FTC regulations governing the conduct of businesses online were introduced in March 2012. Search online and you will see that many websites are unaware (or choose to flaunt) these requirements. As documented on their website, this often results in the FTC making an example of businesses and prosecuting companies for breaches of regulation in an effort to get other businesses to comply.
If you plan to do any type of money-making activity 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 by ensuring that your website is compliant with FTC guidelines and regulations.
You can find many business resources that can provide guidelines on how to structure disclaimers and disclosures to help your site meet FTC requirements. We provide additional references at the end of this article …
(Word your disclaimers and disclosures correctly to avoid running foul of the law)
Social Media Applications Also Require Compliance
If you are planning to create social networking applications for your website users, you will also be required to provide social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and many others with information about 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 websites like Google, Facebook, etc., then it’s best to assume that 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 advertising, or use Google AdWords to drive visitors to your pages, etc., then find out exactly what kind of legal information you need to display on your site to comply with their Terms Of Service and policy requirements - don’t risk having your accounts terminated.
- If you have ever wondered if “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, almost all 3rd-party websites require you to comply with their policies and guidelines)
What Compliance Information Pages Do I Need To Add To My Site To Be Compliant?
If you suspect that your website or blog is falling short in areas of compliance, then this section will help you.
Adding the following compliance pages to your website should help you stay out of trouble with many regulatory authorities and external providers, and avoid potential legal issues):
- About Us Page
- Contact Us
- Privacy Policy
- Terms & Conditions
- Disclaimers
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
In addition to the pages above, you may want to consider adding any of the pages listed below if applicable:
- Affiliate Agreement (e.g. if you provide an affiliate program)
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Earnings Disclaimer
- External Links Policy
- Financial Disclaimers (if your website or blog provides content about financial areas or money-making opportunities)
- Refund Policy (if you sell products or services online)
- Media Terms (if you provide users with access to videos or audio files on your site)
Disclosure Pages – Types
Adding the right type of content disclosure is important. For example:
- No Material Connection – This lets users be aware that you will not receive for writing the content.
- Affiliate Links – Discloses to your readers that you will receive compensation if they buy through affiliate links on your site.
- Sample Or review Copy – Lets users know that you have received a sample or review copy of the product you’re writing about by the author or developer.
- Sponsored Post – Disclosure that informs visitors that you have been compensated in some way to write the post.
- Third Party Advertising – Informs your visitors that you’re using online behavioral tracking technology. This is required to satisfy the “enhanced notice” the Better Business Bureau has been requiring online publishers to display prominently on their sites since January 1, 2014.
Adding Legal Pages To Your Site
Ideally, you will have your lawyer prepare the content of your legal documents. Once this has been done, there are several ways to include them in your website.
Uploading Legal Pages To Your Website
If someone prepares and delivers the legal verbiage for you as standard web pages (e.g. HTML), you can simply upload these to your web server, or have someone upload them for you.
We recommend adding a legal directory to your web server and uploading your legal pages to this folder using FTP …
(Upload legal pages to your web server via FTP)
You can then add links to these pages from your WordPress site using a custom WordPress menu …
(WordPress Menu)
Displaying Legal Web Pages On Your Website
Make sure that your legal pages are up-to-date and clearly accessible to all site visitors. You can add these to the sidebar (or place them in the footer of your website or blog) so that users have access to legal information from all your pages …
(Display legal pages to users on all of your site’s pages)
We have written a detailed tutorial on displaying links to pages on your sidebar and footer using widgets here:
Legal Templates
You can find attorney-prepared downloadable website forms and agreements just by searching online, or visiting websites like the ones listed below:
Find Legal Forms
(FindLegalForms.com – Attorney-drafted legal forms)
More information:
Another option is to purchase a set of legal templates drafted by legal attorney Scott Talbert to protect businesses online …
Cut And Paste Website Legal Pages
(Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages)
These templates feature less passive voice and more plain language phrasing and can be customized with a quick search and replace to add your own details, then pasted into your legal pages.
The legal templates included in Scott Talbert’s Legal Pages include:
- Anti-Spam Policy
- Copyright Notice
- Disclaimer
- DMCA Compliance
- FTC Compliance (This proprietary FTC page reflects new FTC guidelines brought into effect in March 2012)
- Privacy Policy
- ToS & Conditions of Use.
You can either create a new WordPress page for every legal form you want to add to your website, then paste the content from the templates into your pages and publish or upload the pages to your server as described previously.
Go here for more details:
Legal Page Plugins
As well as using legal templates, you can simplify things using plugins.
Here are some great plugins for WordPress-driven sites worth looking into:
WordPress Legal Pages
(WordPress Plugin – WP Legal Pages)
If manually creating legal pages for your site feels too time-consuming for you, then consider choosing WP Legal Pages …
The WP Legal Pages plugin is not free, but it’s a reasonably affordable and well-supported premium WordPress plugin that will help simplify the job of creating and implementing legal pages on your website and save you a great deal of time.
Some of the reasons to consider using WP Legal Pages are:
- Pre-written Legal Templates – The plugin gives you access to over 20 built-in legal templates created by professional lawyers.
- Quick And Easy To Use – You can 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, Privacy Policy, Earnings Disclaimer and more!)
- Editable Pages – WordPress content editor lets you edit legal pages just like every other WordPress page.
- Custom Shortcodes Integration – Add shortcodes to any of your pages and the information is then automatically inserted into your content 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 lockdown. When users agree to your legal terms, the page unlocks.
- New Features – The plugin is updated with new features when new versions are released.
When you install WordPress Legal Pages, a menu item will be added to your main WP dashboard menu …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin – Legal Pages Menu)
This allows you to view, create and edit legal pages from the admin area …
(WP Legal Pages – Settings Area)
With WP Legal Pages, you can easily create legal pages for different online uses, such as business websites, affiliate/review websites, AdSense sites, etc …
(WordPress Legal Pages Plugin For WordPress – Type of Site drop down menu)
Select from various pre-written legal templates …
(WordPress 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
To learn more this plugin, visit this site:
Compliance Bar – WordPress Plugin For Website Compliance
Compliance Bar is a simple plugin for WordPress users containing over twenty customizable compliance templates for your online business …
Go here to learn more:
Legal Suite Pro Plugin
(Legal Suite Pro Plugin For WordPress)
Legal Suite Pro 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 & Conditions
- Earnings Disclaimer
(Legal Suite Pro 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 site. Your legal pages can be installed and set up on your site in one minute or less and the plugin licensing is flexible, allowing you to install and use this plugin on all of your sites (even sites that you decide to sell or flip).
For more details, go here:
If hiring lawyers to create your legal pages is out of your budget, consider implementing some basic kind of legal protection on your site until you can afford to hire a lawyer.
We want your website to be legally protected!
Download the Legal Pages Generator software below (for FREE!), or consider using one of the better solutions we discuss in this article, such as using attorney-prepared legal forms, or plugins - see section below.
(Legal Pages Generator Software)
Legal Pages Generator Software quickly generates essential legal documents for your website including ToS, Privacy Policy, Copyright Notice, Website Disclaimer and optional Earnings Disclaimer.
***
As we’ve previously pointed out, if you do business online (or plan to), you need to make sure that your website stays compliant with regulatory agencies and the guidelines and terms of service (TOS) provided by 3rd-party products and services that you may decide to promote or advertise online. Your website or blog must comply with a wide range of regulations, many of which you may not be aware of.
Non-compliance 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 offer legal advice. We strongly advise you to do your own due diligence and consult a legal expert about the best way of ensuring that your website fully complies with all legal requirements wherever your business is based.
Additional Legal Information
Here is a time-saving list of websites we suggest you visit to help you better understand what your business requires to comply and meet its legal obligations:
- FTC Latest List Of Rules & Regulations
- Federal Trade Commission 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
- United States Copyright Office
And …
- 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 the importance of having a compliant website. Use the information above to quickly and easily add all necessary legal pages to your website or blog.
***
"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)