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Setting up a business involves complying with a range of legal requirements. Find out which ones apply to you and your new enterprise.
What particular regulations do specific types of business (such as a hotel, or a printer, or a taxi firm) need to follow? We explain some of the key legal issues to consider for 200 types of business.
While poor governance can bring serious legal consequences, the law can also protect business owners and managers and help to prevent conflict.
Whether you want to raise finance, join forces with someone else, buy or sell a business, it pays to be aware of the legal implications.
From pay, hours and time off to discipline, grievance and hiring and firing employees, find out about your legal responsibilities as an employer.
Marketing matters. Marketing drives sales for businesses of all sizes by ensuring that customers think of their brand when they want to buy.
Commercial disputes can prove time-consuming, stressful and expensive, but having robust legal agreements can help to prevent them from occurring.
Whether your business owns or rents premises, your legal liabilities can be substantial. Commercial property law is complex, but you can avoid common pitfalls.
With information and sound advice, living up to your legal responsibilities to safeguard your employees, customers and visitors need not be difficult or costly.
As information technology continues to evolve, legislation must also change. It affects everything from data protection and online selling to internet policies for employees.
Intellectual property (IP) isn't solely relevant to larger businesses or those involved in developing innovative new products: all products have IP.
Knowing how and when you plan to sell or relinquish control of your business can help you to make better decisions and achieve the best possible outcome.
From bereavement, wills, inheritance, separation and divorce to selling a house, personal injury and traffic offences, learn more about your personal legal rights.
Treating customers fairly and honestly is good for your reputation, helping attract new customers and build customer loyalty. It also helps you comply with legal requirements, particularly if you sell to individual consumers rather than business customers.
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations came into force in 2008, replacing detailed rules on trade descriptions and misleading prices with a broader prohibition of unfair trading when you market and sell to consumers.
The regulations set out a general ban on failing to meet the standard of honest market conduct and acting in good faith. The regulations also target misleading marketing practices and aggressive sales techniques. In both cases, unfair trading practices are prohibited if they affect the average consumer's ability to make an informed purchasing decision. The regulations also ban outright 31 specific unfair trading practices such as bogus competitions, pestering consumers and fake closing-down sales.
Bear in mind that Trading Standards can take enforcement action against businesses for unfair trading.
As well as protection from unfair trading, consumers are protected by statutory rights and regulations against unfair contracts. These mean, for example, that goods sold to consumers must be of satisfactory quality and that unfair terms and conditions hidden in the small print of a contract cannot be enforced.
Providing misleading marketing information may also mean that consumers have the right to return products or claim for any loss they have suffered.
There are also regulations covering doorstep selling, distance selling and e-commerce. Among other things, these generally give the consumer the right to cancel an order within an automatic cooling-off period and receive a refund or replacement if goods are faulty. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 extends consumer rights to include content supplied in digital form for example film, music, apps, computer games, ebooks etc.
Prices and labelling are covered by the unfair trading regulations - for example, misleading pricing is prohibited. Retailers must ensure that prices (and if appropriate unit prices) are clearly displayed. Special labelling rules apply to some types of product; you may want to check with your trade association or professional adviser.
Although sales to businesses are not covered by consumer-protection regulations, there are some restrictions on how you can market and sell to business customers.
The Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations prohibit misleading advertising. This can include any information you provide during the course of negotiating a sale.
Small business customers also have a limited degree of protection against unfair contract terms being imposed by larger suppliers.