Drafting and posting your legal notices on Shopify

Mandatory in France, notably on e-commerce sites built on Shopify, a website's legal notices are information that allows internet users to know who they are dealing with and how they can get in contact with the website's owners. This information must be accessible easily and quickly from any page of the website (often integrated into the bottom of each page). Here is everything you need to know to draft your website's legal notices and integrate them into Shopify.

What are the legal notices that a site's publisher must make available to internet users?

Articles 6-III and 19 of Law No. 2004-575 of 21 June 2004 on confidence in the digital economy require website publishers to communicate certain information to internet users, such as: For a natural person or a sole trader, the following must appear:

• Surname and first name,
• Home address,
• Telephone number and email address

For a legal entity or a company, the following must be displayed:

• the corporate name of the legal entity or the company: name and SIRET number,
• its legal form,
• the amount of its share capital,
• the address of its registered office.

To this information identifying your structure you must add the information relating to your website's host (here, this is SHOPIFY):

• name of the host
• corporate name;
• address;
• SIRET number;
• telephone number.

In addition to the information, the publisher must determine the person responsible for publications, whose surname and first name they will communicate, or else their IDU number or other information depending on their status.

Who drafts the legal notices?

The legal notices are drafted by the owner or the publisher of the Shopify website. Your web developer should not provide you with legal notices that fall outside the scope of their assignment. Although templates exist online, it is advisable to call on a legal professional to avoid any error or omission, since sector-specific texts could impose additional obligations to be indicated alongside these legal notices.

When should legal notices be posted on the Shopify site?

The legal notices must be published as soon as the website hosted by Shopify goes online. In short, legal notices are a legal obligation for any website and their absence can result in significant penalties. It is therefore recommended to draft your legal notices carefully with the help of an internet lawyer to avoid any error or omission.

What are the penalties for the absence of legal notices on Shopify?

The absence of legal notices on a website can result in penalties, notably a fine of €75,000 and one year of imprisonment for natural persons and a fine of €375,000 for legal entities. In addition, this can result in a prohibition on carrying out certain professional activities, whether directly or indirectly. It is therefore crucial to ensure that the legal notices are present on a website.

Additional notices if you distribute products to consumers (Extended Producer Responsibility)?

Since 1 January 2022, the mention of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and of the Unique Identifier (IDU) may be necessary in a website's legal notices for companies that sell physical products (Article R. 541-173 of the Environmental Code). EPR requires producers to assume responsibility for the products they place on the market, including after their use or consumption. This obligation also applies to distributors, importers, exporters and resellers who are considered producers if they place products on the market under their name or their brand. The IDU, for its part, is a unique identifier that must be assigned to each producer by the competent authorities. This identifier makes it possible to track products throughout their life cycle, from their manufacture to their end-of-life treatment. Companies subject to EPR must therefore include their IDU in their legal notices in order to comply with the legal requirements. Failure to comply with this obligation can result in penalties, notably fines and prohibitions on carrying out professional activities. If the unique identifiers do not appear in the GTC or in the contractual documents where the producer does not have GTC, the latter is exposed to the payment of a fine that may not exceed €30,000 under Article L. 541-9-5, para. 4 of the Environmental Code. Marketplaces that sell products on behalf of third parties must contribute to the prevention and management of waste from products subject to the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) under Article L. 541-10-9 of the Environmental Code introduced by the AGEC law. They are subject to the EPR obligations for products sold in their name and for those sold on behalf of third parties. However, they are not required to comply with these obligations if the supplier communicates the Unique Identifier (IDU) for each EPR channel concerned. In summary, the mention of Extended Producer Responsibility and of the Unique Identifier is a legal obligation for companies that sell physical products.

Must my legal notices be in French?

Yes, as long as your website is aimed at French consumer clientele. Indeed, the Toubon law of 4 August 1994 on the use of the French language provides that « in the designation, the offer, the presentation, the instructions for use, the description of the scope and the conditions of guarantee of a good, a product or a service, the use of the French language is mandatory » (art. 2). You should select the “Seetings” section at the bottom left of your space on Shopfy then select, on the second page that opens, “Policies” at the bottom of the list. As soon as you have opened this page, you must fill in these notices in the “Legal notice” text provided for this purpose. In any event, you should make sure that this page is present in your footnotes. Indeed, your legal notices must be present on every page of your Shopify store. It is important to take into account, in addition to the usual legal notices, other essential information. This includes the details relating to the personal data that are collected and processed by the site, the specific features related to e-commerce if the site sells products or services, and the information on ranking and reference for certain types of sites, such as matchmaking platforms and sites presenting goods and services offered by third parties, such as marketplaces. That's a lot to take in, isn't it? Don't worry, I'm here to help you! For advice tailored to your situation and to make sure that your site complies with all the regulations, do not hesitate to contact me. I will be delighted to support you in this process. Click below to send me a message right now!