What should a website's legal notices contain?

When we embark on a website project, the first thing we dedicate our time to is managing the structure of our website, the products and content we want to publish, plugins to manage purchases… but we don't pay special attention to the texts of our legal notices.

The reason for the lack of interest in generating these notices is that most people do not stop to read them, and also because not everyone who has a website is obliged to have them.

But really, the purpose of these legal notices is to provide customers with as much transparency as possible about our activity and our purpose on the web.

Some of the laws to be taken into account when drafting these texts are:

• Law 34/2002 on Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce of 11 July. Hereinafter LSSI.
•  Organic Law 15/1999 on the Protection of Personal Data and the Regulation that develops it (Royal Decree no. 1720/2007, of 21 December). Hereinafter LOPD.
• Ministerial Order IT C/1542/2005 of 19 May 2005 approving the National Plan for Internet domain names under the corresponding country code (".es").

But with special relevance in Law 34/2002, Article 10 establishes the obligation for the provider of information society services to have the means to allow users and the competent authority to have permanent, easy, direct and free electronic access to the following information:

• Data identifying the owner of the WEBSITE, whether a natural person or a legal entity: Name, company name and contact details (address, e-mail address, telephone or fax), if applicable, legal representative, as well as the N.I.F. or C.I.F. If it is an entity registered in the Mercantile Register, this registration data must be included.
• If the activity carried out by the WEBSITE requires any prior administrative authorisation (such as private security, transport, energy or waste management, for example), the details of this authorisation must be stated, as well as the identification of the administrative body supervising this.
• If a regulated professional activity is exercised (lawyer, doctor, detective, etc.), the details of the professional association, membership number, academic title and the European Union state where it was obtained must be stated, as well as the professional statutes or code of ethics governing their professional practice, indicating the means by which they can be found (including electronic means).

• Clear information must be provided about the price of the product or service, with express mention of the inclusion or not of the corresponding taxes and, where applicable, shipping costs.
• If the service adheres to some kind of code of conduct, mention should be made of it and how to consult it on the Internet.

These are some of the data to take into account when creating our website, which is as important as its content in order to avoid legal problems.