· The AI Web Factory team
The legal notice nobody reads until it matters
What Spanish law requires on a website, why article 10 of the LSSI is a better sales argument than it looks and the mistake of copying it from another site.
Legal pages are always done last, in a hurry and copied. That’s understandable: nobody builds a website looking forward to drafting their cookie policy. But it’s one of the few parts of the site where there is a rule that spells out, chapter and verse, what has to be there.
And it turns out that rule, used well, sells.
What the law asks for, word for word
Article 10.1 of Ley 34/2002, de servicios de la sociedad de la información (the LSSI, Spain’s e-commerce and information society services law), requires that anyone can access certain specific details “permanently, easily, directly and free of charge”. That wording has been in force since 11 May 2014.
What people must be able to find:
- The name or company name and the registered address.
- An email address and any other detail that allows direct and effective communication.
- The registration details in the Registro Mercantil (Spain’s Companies Register), where applicable.
- The tax identification number.
- If prices are given, whether they include taxes and shipping costs.
So far, this is what everyone more or less knows. The interesting part comes in letter d).
The letter almost nobody uses
If you practise a regulated profession, the same article asks for four more things: the professional association you belong to and your membership number, the official academic qualification you hold, the country where it was issued and the professional rules that apply to you, with the means to consult them.
Read that again thinking like a client rather than like someone with an obligation.
An expert witness, a lawyer, a building surveyor or a physiotherapist who publishes their membership number is handing over a credential that anyone can check in a public register, for free, in thirty seconds. Their competitor, on the same services page, writes “over fifteen years of experience” and it can’t be verified.
On the group’s websites that’s how we do it. On Perito Camión the ASPEJURE membership number is shown, with a link to the association’s public profile. Anyone who has doubts can click. It’s more persuasive than any adjective.
Why this decides sales
Think about how someone who doesn’t know you makes up their mind. They come in, they like what they see and before writing to you they do a quick check: they look for who is behind it. If they find a company with a name, an address, a tax ID and an identifiable person in charge, they carry on. If they find a legal notice with another company’s name inside it, because it was copied and never checked, they leave. And they don’t write to tell you why.
That second case is more common than you’d think. It turns up in almost one in three audits we carry out on other people’s websites.
The three pages and what goes in each
The legal notice says who you are, how to contact you and on what terms the website is used. It’s the one that covers article 10.
The privacy policy says what data you collect, what for, on what legal basis, how long you keep it and who you pass it on to. If you have a contact form, you’re collecting personal data even if it’s only an email address. And the person who gives it to you has the right to see it, correct it and ask you to delete it. That has to be written down and you have to be able to honour it: if someone asks you by email tomorrow, you need to know where their data is.
The cookie policy says what cookies you set, whose they are and what they’re for. With a notice where rejecting is as easy as accepting. A banner with “Accept all” on a big coloured button and “Settings” in an eight-pixel grey link doesn’t comply, however common it is. And nothing may load before the person decides: if your analytics have already started by the time the banner appears, the banner is just decoration.
The two mistakes we see most
Copying the legal pages from another website. It’s spotted in a minute and leaves two gaps: it says things you don’t do and stays silent about things you do. If you have a chat and the copied policy doesn’t mention it, you’re processing data you haven’t declared.
Writing them once and never looking at them again. You add a form, switch email provider, put in an advertising pixel for a Christmas campaign. Each of those changes should touch the privacy policy. Almost none of them do.
How we do it here
Every website that leaves this house has its legal pages written for that company, with its real details and with the regulated-profession information where it applies. The cookie consent is genuine: rejecting sits at the same level as accepting and nothing loads before the answer.
They’re linked from the footer of every page, which is where people who
look for them look. They carry noindex, because they aren’t content
that should compete on Google.
A ten-second check
Open your website on your phone and look for your tax ID. If it takes you more than ten seconds to find it, you don’t comply with article 10. And worse: you’re also letting down the person who is wondering whether to call you.
If you’d like us to check it, get in touch.
This post is for information only and is no substitute for advice from a professional. The quotation is from article 10.1 of Ley 34/2002, de 11 de julio, as consulted in the consolidated text published by the BOE, Spain’s Official State Gazette.
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