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This article explains how to establish a sustainable compliance programme that ensures your website remains legally compliant as both the law and your business undergo changes.
Introduction
The series’ main point is that website compliance is ongoing. Your business evolves, the legal landscape shifts, your website undergoes updates, and the technologies you utilise undergo development. A fully compliant website when it launched can fall out of compliance within months if it is not actively maintained and monitored.
Yet this is precisely the approach many businesses take. They invest in compliance at the outset, putting in place terms and conditions, a privacy policy, a cookie banner, and the other necessary elements, and then consider the job done. They do not revisit these documents until a complaint is made, a regulator writes to them, or a legal dispute arises. By that point, the cost of remediation is invariably greater than the cost of ongoing maintenance would have been.
This final article in our compliance series explains why ongoing compliance matters, what a website compliance audit involves, how frequently you should review your compliance positions, and how to build a sustainable compliance program that keeps your business protected.
Why Compliance Drifts
Compliance drift occurs for several reasons, and understanding them is the first step to preventing it. The most common cause is legislative change. UK law does not stand still. The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new obligations for website operators. Changes to UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) guidance from the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) can alter best practice overnight. Amendments to consumer protection regulations can affect your terms of sale. Each legislative change may require corresponding changes to your website documentation and processes.
The second major cause is business change. When you add new products or services, enter new markets, change your pricing structure, start collecting new types of data, integrate new third-party tools, or redesign your website, your existing compliance framework may no longer be accurate. A privacy policy drafted when your website used three cookies, which are small data files stored on users’ devices, may be woefully inadequate when a redesign has introduced twenty.
The third cause is technology change. Website platforms are updated, plugins are replaced, analytics tools evolve, and new tracking technologies emerge. Each change can affect your cookie compliance, your data processing activities, and the accuracy of your website documentation. If your marketing team installs a new analytics pixel without informing your compliance function, your cookie policy is immediately out of date.
Finally, there is simple human error. Staff turnover, miscommunication, and business pressures often lead to the deprioritization or forgetting of compliance tasks. Without a structured program of review, small lapses accumulate and create significant compliance gaps.
The Website Compliance Audit
A website compliance audit is a structured review of your website against the legal requirements that apply to your business. It should be comprehensive, covering every aspect of compliance, from your terms and conditions to your cookie implementation. It should result in a clear set of findings with prioritised recommendations for remediation.
Terms and Conditions
Review your website terms and conditions against your current business model. Do they accurately describe your products and services? Do they reflect your current delivery and returns processes? Do the limitations on liability clauses remain proportionate and enforceable? Have there been any changes in the law that affect the terms? If you sell to consumers, do your terms comply with the current requirements of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013?
Privacy Policy
Your privacy policy should be audited against your actual data processing activities. Conduct a fresh data mapping exercise and compare the results against what your privacy policy states. Are there new categories of data being collected that are not disclosed? Have you added new third-party processors that are not mentioned? Are your stated retention periods accurate? Are the lawful bases you rely on still appropriate? Has the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) issued any new guidance that affects your processing?
Cookie Compliance
Run a full cookie scan of your website using automated tools to identify every cookie being set. Compare the results against your cookie policy. Are there undisclosed cookies present? Are all non-essential cookies being blocked until consent is obtained? Does your cookie banner provide a genuine choice? Can users change their preferences after their initial selection? Has your cookie consent platform been updated and properly configured?
E-Commerce Compliance
If you sell online, review your checkout process against the requirements of the Consumer Contracts Regulations. Is all the required pre-contractual information provided before the order is placed? Can the consumer identify and correct errors before submitting their order? Is the order confirmation sent promptly? Does your cancellation process meet the 14-day requirement? Is the model cancellation form available?
Accessibility
Test your website against WCAG 2.1 Level AA criteria using both automated tools and manual testing. Pay particular attention to any content or features that have been added or changed since the last review. Check that images have alttext, that forms are properly labelled, that colour contrast meets the required ratios, and that all functionality is accessible via keyboard.
Intellectual Property
Review all content on your website to confirm that you have the necessary rights. Check that image licences remain current and that their terms are being complied with. Verify that font licenses cover web usage. Make sure the appropriate terms cover any user-generated content. Review your trademark portfolio against your current branding and domain names.
Marketing Compliance
Audit your email marketing practices against PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations), which govern how businesses can communicate with consumers electronically. Review your consent mechanisms, your processes for managing your mailing list, and the content of your marketing emails. Ensure that every email includes a functional unsubscribe link, that opt-outs are processed promptly, and that your records of consent are complete and up to date.
How Often Should You Audit
The frequency of compliance audits depends on the nature and size of your business, the rate of change in your website and operations, and the regulatory environment in which you operate. As a general guide, a comprehensive audit should be conducted at least annually. More frequent reviews, ideally quarterly, should be carried out for specific areas that are subject to regular change, such as cookies, data processing activities, and marketing practices.
In addition to scheduled audits, you should conduct a targeted review whenever a significant change occurs. This includes launching a new website or a major redesign; adding new products, services, or business lines; entering new geographic markets; implementing new technology or third-party integrations; changes in applicable legislation or regulatory guidance; and following any complaint, data breach, or regulatory enquiry.
The key principle is that your compliance documentation should always accurately reflect your current business operations. If there is a gap between what your documents say and what your business actually does, you are non-compliant.
Building a Compliance Programme
Assign Responsibility
Compliance must be someone’s job. Designate a specific person or team with responsibility for website compliance. This group might be an in-house legal team, a compliance officer, or an external solicitor. Whoever it is, they need to have the authority to require changes and the resources to monitor compliance on an ongoing basis.
Create a Compliance Calendar
Map out the key compliance activities for the year, including scheduled audits, document reviews, cookie scans, and training sessions. Align these with your business calendar so that compliance reviews take place before major launches, seasonal campaigns, or regulatory deadlines. A compliance calendar transforms an abstract obligation into a series of concrete, manageable tasks.
Implement Change Management Processes
Ensure that any change to your website, your data processing activities, or your product range triggers a compliance review. This requires communication between your marketing team, your development team, your operations team, and your compliance function. A simple checklist for new features, new integrations, or new campaigns can prevent many compliance issues before they arise.
Train Your Team
Every person who contributes to your website needs to understand the basics of compliance. This includes web developers who need to know about cookie implementation and accessibility; marketing teams who need to understand PECR and consent; content creators who need to respect intellectual property; and customer service staff who need to understand consumer rights. Training should be regular and it should be updated whenever the law or your processes change.
Document Everything
Good compliance is documented compliance. Keep records of your audits, your findings, your remediation actions, and your review dates. Record the consent you obtain, the complaints you receive, and the data breaches you detect. Maintain version histories of your terms, policies, and procedures. This documentation serves both as evidence of compliance and as a resource for future reviews.
The Cost of Non-Compliance
Businesses sometimes resist investing in ongoing compliance because of the perceived cost. However, the cost of non-compliance is invariably higher. Regulatory fines under UK GDPR can reach £17.5 million or four per cent of global turnover. PECR fines can reach £500,000. Fines under the Online Safety Act can reach £18 million or ten per cent of qualifying worldwide revenue. Beyond fines, non-compliance can result in enforcement notices, court orders, compensation claims from consumers, intellectual property litigation, loss of payment processing facilities, and reputational damage that takes years to repair.
Compared to these potential costs, the investment in a structured compliance program is modest. Regular reviews, updated documentation, and trained staff are significantly cheaper than regulatory enforcement, legal disputes, and crisis management.
Working With Specialist Advisers
While appropriate training and processes can manage many aspects of website compliance in-house, working with specialist legal advisers offers significant advantages. The law governing websites touches on multiple areas of expertise, including data protection, consumer law, intellectual property, electronic commerce, and increasingly, online safety regulation. Keeping abreast of developments in all these areas is a significant undertaking, and specialist advisers bring both breadth and depth of knowledge that most businesses cannot replicate internally.
A good compliance adviser will not only conduct audits and draft documents but will help you build the internal processes and understanding that enable you to maintain compliance between reviews. They will alert you to forthcoming legislative changes, advise on the compliance implications of business decisions, and provide a second opinion when you are unsure whether a new feature or practice meets your obligations.
Conclusion
Website compliance is a journey, not a destination. The most effective businesses treat it as a vital part of their operations, not a box to check and forget. A structured compliance program— with clear responsibilities, regular audits, effective change management, and ongoing training, is the most reliable way to ensure that your website remains compliant as the law and your business evolve.
This article concludes our ten-part series on website legal compliance. We have covered terms and conditions, privacy policies, cookie compliance, e-commerce regulations, accessibility, intellectual property, email marketing, consumer rights, age verification, and ongoing compliance. Together, these articles provide a comprehensive guide to the legal requirements that every UK business with a website must meet. The investment in getting it right is one of the most cost-effective decisions any business can make.
Let us handle your website compliance
Lawdit Solicitors’ The StayLegal compliance package takes the burden of website compliance off your shoulders. We provide bespoke legal documentation, regular compliance reviews, and ongoing support to ensure your website remains fully compliant. From initial audit to ongoing monitoring, our specialist team is here to help. Visit staylegal.co.uk to get started, or contact us at lawdit.co.uk to discuss your requirements.
This is the final article in the StayLegal Compliance Series. For the complete series, visit staylegal.co.uk
