The drafting of legal notices often takes a backseat to the design, content, and SEO of a website. This “administrative” page is, however, a legal requirement established by the law for trust in the digital economy (LCEN) of June 21, 2004, applicable to any publisher of online public communication services.
An omission or an incomplete page exposes one to heavy financial penalties, whether the site is commercial or not.
What the SREN law of 2024 has changed for legal notices
Before the law aimed at securing and regulating the digital space of May 21, 2024, the obligation mainly concerned “website publishers.” The modification of the LCEN by this law has broadened the scope: any person publishing an online public communication service is concerned, with no revenue threshold and no distinction between commercial or free activity.
A personal blog, a web-hosted newsletter, an associative platform, or a public application service must all display compliant legal notices. One can no longer invoke the non-commercial nature of the site to exempt oneself.
To see what a structured legal notice page looks like on an active site, one can access the Brussels Sunshine site and observe the chosen formatting.
Mandatory legal notices: natural person and legal entity
The exact content of the notices varies according to the legal status of the publisher. There are two main cases, and confusing them is a common mistake when using an automatic generator without checking the result.
Publisher natural person (sole proprietor, micro-enterprise)
- Name, first name, home address (or registered address), email address, and contact phone number
- Registration number with the RCS, VAT identification number
- If the activity is regulated (pharmacy, beverage sales, etc.): name and address of the authority that issued the authorization
- Identity of the site’s host: name or business name, address, and phone number
Since the reform of the status, the name and first name must be accompanied by the mention “sole proprietor” or the initials “EI”.
Publisher legal entity (company)
The same contact information is required, but the name/first name is replaced by the business name, legal form, and amount of share capital. The address indicated is that of the registered office. The RCS number, intra-community VAT number, and host’s contact details remain mandatory.
Legal notices and personal data: two pages, not one
Many sites still mix legal notices, privacy policy, and cookie policy into a single endless block of text. This practice poses a real compliance issue.
The regulatory trend is towards a clear separation between legal notices, privacy policy, and cookie management. Each document has a distinct purpose: identification of the publisher on one side, information on the processing of personal data on the other, and management of consent to trackers in a third section.
On the ground, feedback varies on this point: some CMS hosts offer all-in-one templates, while others encourage creating three separate pages. The best practice is to separate them, even if it means inserting navigation links between the documents.
What the legal notice page must specify about data
Even separated from the privacy policy, the legal notice page must indicate the contact details of the data controller and, if applicable, those of the data protection officer (DPO). The user must be able to identify who to contact to exercise their rights (access, rectification, deletion).
Digital accessibility and legal notices in 2025-2026
With the transposition of the European Accessibility Act starting in June 2025, part of the private sector (e-commerce sites, banking services, transport, telecoms, companies exceeding certain thresholds) must comply with the RGAA reference framework.
In practice, many firms recommend adding in the legal notices or in a dedicated accessibility policy the contact methods to report an accessibility defect and request an alternative. This is not yet systematically checked, but integrating it now avoids having to update the page in a few months.
Intellectual property: the mention that everyone forgets
References to intellectual property are part of the legal obligations of a site, yet they are rarely found in proper form. For images, illustrations, and photographs used on the site, their intellectual property must be indicated. For texts that are not yours, you must either obtain the author’s permission or cite the source.
A site that uses visuals without mentioning their origin is exposed to legal action, even if the images come from a royalty-free bank whose conditions require attribution.
Sanctions and control: what happens in case of non-compliance
Failure to comply with the obligation for legal notices constitutes an offense. Fines can reach significant amounts for individuals as well as for companies, in addition to prison sentences provided by the text.
Inspections are not daily, but they often occur during a commercial dispute, a complaint from a competitor, or a report to the CNIL for a problem related to personal data. The simplest approach is to address the issue as soon as the site goes live.
- Ensure that the page is accessible with one click from all pages of the site (footer preferred)
- Update the notices after each change of status, address, or host
- Do not copy-paste the notices from another site: the information must correspond to your own legal structure
A site with complete, up-to-date legal notices that are separate from other regulatory documents does not guarantee the absence of any legal risk. However, compliant notices remain the first element that a business partner or an administration will check before engaging in a relationship with you.
