Legal Compliance Protects Your Business
Ecommerce stores face legal obligations around data protection, consumer rights, and trading standards. Non-compliance risks fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage. While we are not lawyers, our consultancy team ensures the technical implementation supports legal compliance.
Essential Legal Pages
Privacy Policy
Required by law if you collect personal data (which every Shopify store does). Must explain: what data you collect, why you collect it, how you use it, who you share it with, how long you retain it, and how customers can exercise their rights. Shopify provides a template generator — customise it for your specific data practices.
Terms of Service
Defines the rules governing purchases from your store. Covers payment terms, shipping policy, return and refund policy, intellectual property, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution. Have a solicitor review your terms for completeness.
Refund and Returns Policy
UK Consumer Contracts Regulations give online customers a 14-day cooling-off period for most products. Your policy must be at least as generous as legal minimums. Clear, fair return policies actually increase conversion — they reduce purchase anxiety.
GDPR Compliance
Data Processing
- Document all personal data processing activities
- Establish lawful basis for each type of processing (consent, legitimate interest, contract)
- Implement data minimisation — only collect what you need
- Set data retention periods and delete data when no longer needed
Customer Rights
Support the right to access (provide their data on request), right to erasure (delete their data), right to portability (export in machine-readable format), and right to object (opt out of marketing). Shopify provides tools to help with data subject requests.
Cookie Consent
Implement a cookie consent banner that blocks non-essential cookies until consent is given. Use Shopify’s Customer Privacy API to manage consent signals. Configure analytics and marketing pixels to respect consent choices.
Distance Selling Regulations
UK and EU online sellers must provide: clear pricing including all taxes, delivery cost estimates before checkout, cancellation rights information, seller identity and contact details, and order confirmation emails.
Accessibility Requirements
The Equality Act 2010 requires businesses to make reasonable adjustments for disabled customers. While no specific web standard is legally mandated in the UK, WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is the accepted benchmark. Our themes are built with accessibility compliance.
Implementation Checklist
- Privacy policy linked in footer and during checkout
- Cookie consent banner with functional opt-in/opt-out
- Terms of service accessible before purchase
- Return policy clearly stated on product and checkout pages
- SSL certificate active (Shopify handles this)
- Business contact information visible
- VAT number displayed if registered
Need compliance help? Our team handles technical implementation while recommending legal advisory partners.
