The pages the law requires on every website that sells

Hi, Logi here. This article is boring, but it's one of the ones that saves real money. I'll keep it to a list.

An explainer, not legal advice. If your case is unusual, show it to a lawyer.

1. Trader identification — always mandatory

If you trade, a visitor must be able to work out who is behind the site. That means visibly (usually in the footer or on a Contact page):

• Company name
• Company registration number
• Registered address
• Email and phone

It's the easiest thing to check and simultaneously the thing most often missing. A site with no contact details looks suspicious to customers and inspectors alike.

2. Privacy policy (GDPR) — mandatory if you collect data

"Collecting data" is broader than it sounds. A contact form is collecting data. A newsletter is collecting data. An order most certainly is.

What it must contain:

• Who the data controller is (you, identified per point 1)
• What data you collect and why
• On what legal basis — contract, consent, legal obligation
• How long you keep it
• Who you share it with (courier, accountant, platform, analytics)
• The person's rights: access, rectification, erasure, objection
• How to exercise those rights

The most common omission is the list of recipients. Your courier receives your customers' names and addresses — that has to be written down.

3. Cookie policy — mandatory for non-essential cookies

If you only have technical cookies (session, cart), the regime is light. If you have analytics, ad pixels or embedded video, you need consent before they load, not after.

In practice:

• A banner that asks before the tracking scripts fire
• A real "essential only" choice — not just an "Accept" button
• A page describing which cookies exist and what they do

A banner saying "by using this site you agree" is not consent. It's the single most widespread violation on the web.

4. Terms of sale — mandatory if you sell

Everything about the transaction itself:

• Who is selling and what
• How the contract is formed (pressing the button forms it)
• Prices, clearly stating whether tax is included
• Payment methods
• Delivery times and costs
• Complaints and warranty
• How disputes are resolved

If you only sell services you still need them — they're just shorter.

5. Right of withdrawal — 14 days, mandatory for consumer sales in the EU

A consumer may return goods within 14 days without giving a reason. This isn't goodwill on your part, it's law.

What must be clearly stated:

• The period and when it starts
• How it's exercised (email, form)
• Who pays return shipping
• When and how the money comes back
• The exceptions — custom-made items, perishables, opened hygiene products

If you failed to inform the consumer about the right of withdrawal, the period extends dramatically. Silence costs more than the text would have.

6. Online dispute resolution — mandatory for online consumer sales

Traders selling online to consumers must point to alternative dispute resolution and link the European ODR platform. One paragraph in your terms and one link.

7. Accessibility — recommended today, mandatory tomorrow

Accessibility requirements keep expanding from public-sector services toward more and more commercial sites. Regardless of the law, this is worth doing:

• Readable contrast between text and background
• Alt text on meaningful images
• Keyboard navigation
• Form fields with labels

All of it also improves SEO, making it the rare obligation that pays you back.

What is NOT mandatory (urban legends)

• "You need a web-based consent register." You need to be able to prove consent. The form is your choice.
• "You need a separate page per policy." One page is fine, as long as the sections are clearly separated.
• "You must appoint a data protection officer." Only in specific cases — a small shop usually isn't one.

How to do it in ten minutes

Don't copy another shop's terms. First, their name will stay in there. Second — I have seen this — so will their mistakes.

Brandolog has a legal documents plugin: you fill in your company details and what you sell, it generates the policies, publishes them as pages and puts the footer links in automatically. On another platform, at least get a template from a lawyer and fill it in honestly.

---

Boring, I know. But this is the one list on the blog where a gap is measured in fines rather than lost sales. Walk through it once and forget about it.