You have a website for your business registered in the Czech Republic. You know what sort of legal documents you need for it to comply with Czech law (if you’re not sure, no worries – check out the first part of this article series). Now there’s just the tiny matter of actually getting them. So, where can you get the legal docs you need for your website?
Table of Contents
Website Legal Documents: A Summary
Let’s start with a short summary of the legal documents you’ll need for your website (for an in-depth overview with examples, please check out the first installment in this two-part article series). As a rule of thumb, the larger the website, the more legal information you’ll need to provide.
1. Brochure website with business contact details
- Basic identification data
- Information on personal data processing (GDPR)
2. Brochure website with Google Analytics (or similar)
- Basic identification data
- Information on personal data processing (GDPR)
- Cookie consent
3. Sales or e-commerce website
- Basic identification data
- Information on personal data processing (GDPR)
- Cookie consent
- Terms of Service
- Refunds and Returns Policy
Where Can I Get the Legal Documents for My Website?
Now that you know what sort of legal documents you’ll need for your site, let’s move to step two. Where exactly are you supposed to get all these docs?
1. Hire a Lawyer
The best thing you can do is hire a lawyer to draft everything for you – especially your Terms of Service. It comes with a price tag, though. Find a Czech lawyer who works in English, or have the documents prepared in Czech and then translated by a professional translator with experience in legal translation.
2. Adapt a Template Prepared by a Czech Law Firm
Aiming for some sort of middle ground? Buy a template from a website such as Legito and simply add your company details. You can even hire the author of the document to go over it for you. Since your business is based in the Czech Republic, aim for documents written by experts in Czech law (i.e., Czech law firms), and make sure there’s some sort of clause stating that the contract is governed by the laws of the Czech Republic.
This is also a good option if you’re waiting for your custom documents but want to launch your website ASAP.
3. Download a Free Template or Just Write It Yourself
When working on a shoestring budget, you can always write the documents yourself. Download a free template and find a few existing documents to draw inspiration from. These might be from a competitor’s website (their TOS will be relevant to your industry – but may not be legally compliant) or from the websites of law firms (I’m guessing a law firm will have their own legal stuff in order. It may not be too relevant to your own business, though). Draft your own documents using these sources as inspiration.
Always use existing texts for inspiration, never copy them word-for-word. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t be like that one business which simply copied-and-pasted their competitor’s TOS and didn’t even change the name, address or contact details of the original company. Were they sued? You bet.
Finally, if your website is built on WordPress, a number of plugins will generate a cookie consent and privacy policy template for you automatically.
Where Should I Put All These Files?
The law doesn’t tell you where exactly you should put all this information, only that it should be easily available. In practice, you’ll mostly find links to relevant policies in the website footer, on the Contact Us page, and on all direct sales pages.
A Quick Fix for Simple Websites
Worried you don’t have all the docs you’ll need? I’ve honestly yet to meet an entrepreneur who would have all their legal documents ready when they start thinking about a website (I’ve obviously never designed a website for a law firm, hah 🙂 ). Getting them in order will take some time, especially if you’re hiring a lawyer.
So, for small brochure sites, I generally set up a temporary page called ‘Cookies and GDPR’ and include the following text:
Our website only uses strictly necessary (functional) cookies.
Any personal data obtained through this website (e.g. the visitor choosing to contact the company by email or phone) will be used solely for the purposes of processing the user’s request.
Do these two sentences cover a website’s legal requirements? Absolutely not. Until all your documents are ready, though, they may, at the very least, serve as a demonstration of good will.
Disclaimer: This article does not contain legal advice. While I draw on sources prepared by experts and on my own experience, and the information in this article is, to the best of my knowledge, correct, I remain a web designer. I’m not a lawyer, nor do I have any formal legal training. For an in-depth guide to business websites and Czech law, I recommend Online Business and the Law, a five-part series of posts written by attorney Mária Chvajová Staňková, published at GDPR.cz (Czech only, I’m afraid).
Sources
- Jiří Hradský: GDPR. Jak se poprat s ochranou osobních údajů na webu? [GDPR: How to Handle Personal Data Protection on Your Website?]
Lecture at WordCamp Praha 2022 - Monika Bakešová: Jaké údaje musíte mít povinně na svém podnikatelském webu? [Required Information on Your Business Website]
- Jakub Klodwig: 5 nejčastějších chyb při používání cookies [5 Most Common Mistakes When Using Cookies]
- Jan Pernica: Jaké právní náležitosti by měl splňovat e-shop? [What Are the Legal Requirements for E-commerce Websites?]
- Jan Matějíček: Shoptet, Můj první e-shop: Právní náležitosti e-shopu [Legal Requirements for E-Commerce Websites]
- Andrea Voříšková: Kompletní právní návod: Jak na e-shop od nápadu až po spuštění [A Definitive Legal Guide: E-commerce Sites From Idea to Launch]
- Eva Knirschová: Musí být v e-shopu vždy uvedeno kontaktní telefonní číslo? [Do I Have to List A Phone Number on My E-commerce Website?]
- CTIA carried out 200 inspections of e-shops in the third quarter
- Základní příručka k ochraně údajů [Basic Data Protection Guide]
- Iubenda.com: Privacy Notice vs Privacy Policy: Is there a difference?