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The First Company Law Directive makes changes to the information that is mandatory for companies to display on letterheads and websites.

New provisions coming into force on January 1st 2007 imposed new requirements on companies to display particular information on their letterheads and on their websites.

The new requirements, as set out by the First Company Law Directive and having effect by the Companies Act 2006, stipulate that the following information be displayed on a company’s website:

· The company’s name;

· The company’s registered office address;

· The company’s place of registration and registration number;

· If the company is an investment company, a statement to that effect must be made;

· If the company is exempt from the obligation to use the word “Limited” as part of its name, it must state elsewhere that it is a “Limited Company”.

The information set out above must also be contained in the company’s letterhead. Previous legislation specified that this requirement applied to “paper documentation”, giving rise to uncertainty as to whether this information was required on electronic documents, such as e-mails.

This discrepancy has since been rectified by the First Company Law Amendment Directive, which alters the wording of the requirement with the effect that e-mails and electronic documentation now categorically fall under this requirement.