Last week, I ran straight into this surprisingly basic issue. For one project, the teams (bypassing Legal) hired an agency to build a full showcase website based on an order with no specification document (so it was never off to a good start).
What happened, happened—we received a site with no legal notices, no Terms of Use, no Privacy Policy, and no Cookie Policy! 🖥️❌
Even more astonishing, the agency told us this was very common practice and not necessary.
Beyond the obvious GDPR concerns that immediately raised red flags, this situation highlights another (criminal) risk linked to the absence of mandatory legal notices—specifically, the failure to appoint a Publication Director.
All too often overlooked, this requirement is absolutely crucial, and ignorance of it can lead to sanctions, as a recent court ruling reminded us.
The requirement to appoint a Publication Director ✍️📄
- Rooted in the Press Freedom Law of July 29, 1881 (Art. 93‑2) and applied to online public communication services by the French Digital Economy Act (LCEN) of June 21, 2004, this obligation applies to any professional website publisher (showcase sites, e‑commerce, corporate blogs, etc.).
- The Publication Director is the natural person criminally responsible for all content published on the site – typically the legal representative of the publishing company (President, CEO, etc.) or the sole proprietor.
- Their full name must appear in the site’s legal notices, which must be easily accessible.
Recent conviction for failure to appoint (Marseille Judicial Court, Nov. 29, 2024) ⚖️⚠️
- The Marseille Judicial Court recently convicted an individual for failing to designate a Publication Director for a website.
- The ruling confirms that omitting this designation is not a mere administrative formality but a criminal offense (Art. 93‑3 of the 1881 Law).
- Penalties can include hefty fines (up to €75,000 for a legal entity, plus penalties for the responsible individual) and potentially imprisonment in the most serious or repeat-offender cases.
How to protect yourself
- Always verify that your company’s websites include complete legal notices.
- Incorporate a detailed specification document and explicitly require, in your contract, delivery of a site compliant with French law.
- Establish a process where Legal must sign off on the legal notices before any site goes live.
- Clearly inform your legal representatives of their role as Publication Director and the criminal liability that entails.
