The website legal notice templates going around often cite a legal basis that no longer exists, and the requirement covers every professional site, including a three-page brochure site that sells nothing. Since May 23, 2024, the basis has been article 1-1 of law no. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004, no longer article 6 III of the LCEN. A second set of obligations often piles on top: article 19 of the same law.
What changed on May 23, 2024 for legal notices?
Article 48 of the SREN law, law no. 2024-449 of May 21, 2024, created two articles in the LCEN: article 1-1, which carries publisher identification, and article 1-2, which carries the penalty. Both have been in force since May 23, 2024. That same article 48 also rewrote article 6, which until then carried legal notices in its section III. That move is what makes most templates in circulation obsolete.
Article 6 is still in force: the same article 48 rewrote it in full, in the words used by the legislature, “Article 6 shall read as follows”. That article 6 now deals with intermediary service providers, internet access, hosting, search engines, platforms, by reference to the definitions in regulation (EU) 2022/2065. It still has a section III, but that section covers how internet access providers inform their subscribers, technical means of restricting access, and parental controls.
So a page still citing “article 6 III of the LCEN” is not pointing to a dead text. It is pointing to a live one that has nothing to do with it. Open yours and search for the phrase.
One calendar detail worth keeping sharp: the same article 48 produces two entry-into-force dates. Article 6 has applied since February 17, 2024, articles 1-1 and 1-2 since May 23, 2024.
What legal notices are mandatory on a website?
Section I of article 1-1 requires five blocks: your identity, a phone number, your registration number where applicable, the publication director, and your hosting service provider with its address and phone number. The text opens with a formal requirement: “Persons whose activity consists of publishing an online public communication service shall make available to the public, in an open standard”.
Article 4 of the same law defines that open standard: an interoperable data protocol or format whose technical specifications are public and carry no restriction on access or implementation. Two criteria, both required. The HTML specifications are public and freely implementable, so an ordinary web page meets both. If your contact details live only in a downloadable file, hold its format up against those same two criteria before you leave it online.
Natural person (article 1-1, I, 1)
- your first name and last name;
- your home address;
- your phone number;
- your registration number, if you are subject to registration formalities with the trade and companies register or with the national business register as a trades and crafts business.
Legal entity (article 1-1, I, 2)
- your corporate or business name and your registered office;
- your phone number;
- if you are subject to either of the two formalities above, your registration number, your share capital and the address of your registered office.
In every case (points 3, 4 and 5)
- the name of the publication director or co-director and, where applicable only, the name of the editor in chief;
- the name, corporate name or business name, address and phone number of your hosting service provider;
- where applicable, the name, corporate name or business name and address of the persons who carry out, even free of charge, the storage of data processed directly by them as part of publishing the service.
Point 3 refers expressly to article 93-2 of law no. 82-652 of July 29, 1982 on audiovisual communication. That is the text setting out who must be designated. Open it before you name anyone.
Two notes on point 5, the real novelty of 2024. It only applies “where applicable” and, unlike point 4, it does not call for a phone number. More importantly, the reach of the pronoun in “processed directly by them” has not been settled by any official source to date. So stay as close to the text as you can. Go through your side components, outsourced database, form service, media storage, and keep the ones that genuinely host site data.
Do you also have to display an email address?
Yes, as soon as you carry out the activity defined in article 14 of the LCEN, and never under article 1-1, which requires a phone number without ever mentioning an email address. Email comes from article 19 of the LCEN. A page that satisfies article 1-1 alone is still in breach.
The opening paragraph of article 19 requires “easy, direct and permanent access using an open standard” to the information it lists, for anyone carrying out the activity defined in article 14. If you sell online, read that article 14 first: it defines the activity concerned, and the scope question gets settled with the text in hand. When in doubt, displaying an email address and a phone number costs you two lines.
What article 19 requires, beyond the email address:
- your first name and last name, or your business name;
- the address where you are established and phone details that actually put people in contact with you;
- if you are subject to the trade and companies register or, in the wording of this text, to the trades register, your registration number, your share capital and the address of your registered office;
- your individual VAT identification number, if you are liable for VAT;
- if your activity requires authorization, the name and address of the authority that granted it;
- if you practice a regulated profession, the reference to the applicable professional rules, your professional title, the member state that granted it and the name of the professional body or organization you are registered with.
A separate paragraph adds a standalone obligation: as soon as you state a price, even with no contract offer on the table, you must state it clearly and unambiguously, specifying in particular whether taxes and delivery costs are included.
Two nuances. Point 2 is more demanding than the plain phone number of article 1-1: a number that never picks up does not actually put anyone in contact with you. And the register labels differ between the two texts, with article 1-1 naming the national business register for trades and crafts, while article 19 still names the trades register. Check your own situation against your registration extract, not against a template.
Note: article 19 changes version on September 1, 2026 and stays in force. An ordinance of December 17, 2025 recodifying VAT replaces, in point 4, the reference to article 286 ter of the general tax code with a reference to article L. 215-27 of the code on levies on goods and services, article 286 ter being repealed on the same date. The opening paragraph, points 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6, the paragraph on prices and the one on enforcement officers are word-for-word identical across both versions. This is not a repeal, and nothing needs changing on your page. The version applicable on September 1, 2026 can already be consulted.
What are the penalties for missing legal notices?
Article 1-2 of the LCEN, in force since May 23, 2024, punishes with one year in prison and a 75,000 euro fine the act, by a natural person or by the de jure or de facto director of a legal entity publishing an online public communication service, of failing to comply with sections I and II of article 1-1, which the text refers to as “article 1er-1”.
For legal entities, the same article provides for criminal liability under the conditions of the criminal code. The 375,000 euro figure you often see quoted does not appear as such in the article: it comes from the fivefold rule set out in article 131-38 of the criminal code. Additional penalties provided by the criminal code also apply.
These are maximums the judge may impose. In practice, the issue rarely shows up as a criminal prosecution. It shows up when a third party checks who you are: a partner, a buyer, a platform, a customer on the fence.
The 3,750 euro fine you sometimes come across belongs to the online right of reply, set out in sections III and IV of that same article 1-1: anyone named or identified in an online public communication service has a right of reply, the request must be made within three months and publication must happen within three days, free of charge. So article 1-1 covers far more than legal notices.
Article 19, finally, carries no penalty of its own. It provides only that breaches of its provisions are investigated and recorded by the officers named in articles L. 511-3 and L. 511-21 of the consumer code.
Are legal notices mandatory for a brochure site?
Yes. Article 1-1 covers the publishing of an online public communication service, a concept that assumes no sale, no payment and no form. A three-page site presenting your roofing business or your practice falls under the same identification requirements as a store.
Section II of the same article draws the only line that matters, the professional nature of the publishing. It reserves to non-professional publishers the option of publishing only the name, corporate name or business name and the address of their hosting service provider, provided they have given that host their personal identification details. This door exists for the private individual running a blog. For an association, the question turns on that criterion, not on association status in itself.
What is the difference between legal notices, terms of sale and a privacy policy?
Three documents, three legal bases, three scopes. Legal notices identify the publisher under article 1-1 of the LCEN. E-commerce information falls under article 19 of the same law. Terms of sale fall under consumer law, and the privacy policy under personal data rules. This article covers only the first two, the ones that come from the LCEN.
| Document | Legal basis | Who is concerned | What it says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal notices | Article 1-1 of the LCEN | Any publisher of an online public communication service | Who publishes this site, who hosts it, who directs publication |
| E-commerce information | Article 19 of the LCEN | The activity defined in article 14 of the LCEN | Name, place of business, email, working phone, registration, share capital, registered office, VAT, authorization, regulated profession, price clarity |
| Terms of sale | Consumer law | Sites selling a product or a service | Prices, delivery, withdrawal, disputes |
| Privacy policy | Personal data rules | Any site collecting data | What data, why, for how long, what rights |
Merging them into one catch-all page makes every piece of information harder to read and targeted updates nearly impossible. Keep separate pages, linked from the footer, with the article 19 information folded into the publisher block of the legal notices. That is what we set up by default on every website design project, including the simplest sites, like the ones we build for tradespeople, where the requirement is exactly the same as for a fifty-person company.
A word on one stubborn relic: the “CNIL filing number”. It appears in none of the lists in article 1-1 or article 19. If your page displays one, it was written a long time ago and nobody has reopened it since.
Which legal notice template should you use for your legal status?
The content adapts to your legal status, the requirement does not move. The publisher block changes depending on whether you publish the site as a natural person or through a legal entity; the host block is identical in all three cases. These templates cover article 1-1 and the bulk of article 19. They replace neither your terms of sale if you sell, nor your privacy policy if you collect data.
Micro-entrepreneur or sole proprietor
Replace every bracketed field with your real details and delete the lines that do not apply to you.
Site publisher
[First name LAST NAME], sole proprietor
Home address / place of business: [full address]
Phone: [number]
Email: [email address]
Registration: [register] under number [number]
Individual VAT identification number: [number]
Publication director: [First name LAST NAME]
Host
[Host's corporate name]
Address: [registered office address]
Phone: [number]
Where applicable, third party providing storage
[Corporate name], [address]A single address line is enough when the home address required by point 1 of article 1-1 and the place of business required by point 2 of article 19 are one and the same. If they differ, give both. Keep the “Registration” line only if you are subject to registration formalities with the trade and companies register, or with the national business register for trades and crafts. The VAT line goes away if you are not liable for VAT.
Company (SARL, SAS, SASU, EURL)
Site publisher
[Corporate name], [legal form] with share capital of [amount] euros
Registered office: [full address]
Phone: [number]
Email: [email address]
Registered with the trade and companies register of [city] under number [number]
Individual VAT identification number: [number]
Publication director: [First name LAST NAME], [role]
Host
[Host's corporate name]
Address: [registered office address]
Phone: [number]
Where applicable, third party providing storage
[Corporate name], [address]Registered association
Site publisher
[Association name], registered association
Registered office: [full address]
Phone: [number]
Email: [email address]
Publication director: [First name LAST NAME], chair
Host
[Host's corporate name]
Address: [registered office address]
Phone: [number]
Where applicable, third party providing storage
[Corporate name], [address]This last template assumes full publication. If your organization publishes the site on a non-professional basis, reread section II of article 1-1 before you strip lines out.
The storage block in all three templates is kept only if a third party genuinely provides data storage within the meaning of point 5 of article 1-1. It calls for no phone number. And if your activity is regulated, add the information listed in point 6 of article 19 as well as anything your professional body or supervisory authority requires on its own account.
What checklist should you run before publishing your legal notices?
Fifteen points, covering article 1-1 and article 19. You can check them with the page open, in one pass, and most of them are fixed with a single line. Two documents are enough to fill them in without guesswork: your registration extract, for the register, the number and the share capital, and your hosting contract, for the host’s exact corporate name and phone number.
- Dedicated page, permanent footer link on every page, no exceptions
- Information published in an open standard: public specifications, no restriction on access or implementation
- Publisher block matching your legal status, natural person or legal entity
- Phone number displayed, and answered
- Email address displayed
- Place of business and, for a company, share capital and registered office address
- Registration number, only if you are subject to one of the formalities named
- Individual VAT identification number, if you are liable for VAT
- Publication director named
- Host: name or corporate name, address and phone number
- Third party providing storage identified where applicable, with no phone number
- Authorizing authority and regulated-profession information where applicable
- Prices stated clearly, with taxes and delivery costs specified
- No reference to article 6 III, no CNIL filing number
- Last-updated date at the bottom of the page
That last line is not a legal requirement, it is a discipline. It forces you to reopen the page when you change address, director or host, and it reassures the reader checking who they are dealing with.
Why handle compliance at go-live?
At Inleven, legal notices, terms of sale and the privacy policy are part of the delivery, just like technical SEO or page speed. Every page is written for the specific business, from its own documents: registration extract, articles of association, hosting contract. You can read our own legal notices to see the format we apply, look through our method and our packages, or the maintenance that takes over once the site is live.
Article current as of July 20, 2026. This article is for information purposes and does not replace advice from a legal professional. For the reference text, go straight to law no. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004 on confidence in the digital economy on Légifrance.
