Sometimes the question comes up at the end of a meeting, almost as a matter of course: “What about the legal notices, will you take care of them?”
We understand the logic. You entrust the site to your agency. The agency handles hosting, updates, SEO and security. So why not this too? It’s a page, after all.
Except no. Well, not quite.
Here’s what we explain – and what many agencies don’t dare make clear to their customers.
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What the law says, and what it implicitly forbids
In France, legal advice is not a free activity. It is regulated. Article 54 of the law of December 31, 1971 (still in force, available on Légifrance) lays down clear restrictions on who can draw up legal acts for others, on a regular and remunerated basis. A web agency is not a law firm. It is not authorized to carry out this type of mission.
It’s not a question of competence or unwillingness. It’s a question of professional boundaries. And vagueness doesn’t work in anyone’s favor – neither the agency, which exposes itself to risk, nor the client, who thinks they’re “covered” when they’re really not.
The real problem is when an agency slips – sometimes without realizing it – from the role of formatting information supplied by the customer to that of validating legal content. This shift, however unintentional, enters the realm of legal advice. And that’s not something you can improvise.
Legal notices are not fixed content
This is where many sites find themselves in difficulty after just a few years.
Your legal disclaimer depends on your actual situation at the time of writing – and that situation is changing. Are you a micro-business or a corporation? Do you sell to private individuals or professionals? Do you have a customer area, a newsletter, an online payment system? Is your business regulated?
The French Ministry of the Economy reminds us that legal notices serve to identify the company in accordance with the requirements of the LCEN, and that the mandatory information varies according to the legal structure and nature of the activity. This is not a template. It’s not a copy-paste. And the penalties for non-compliance are real – the same official text makes this abundantly clear.
We’ve worked with structures that had excellent legal notices… for what they were three years earlier. In the meantime, they had added a contact form, integrated an advertising tracking tool and launched an online store. No one had updated a single line. This is exactly the kind of situation a compliance audit is supposed to identify.
What a serious agency can do – and should do
Let’s be direct about what’s in our perimeter.
We can build a compliance-ready site: the right pages exist, they’re accessible from the footer, the links between legal notices, privacy policy, cookies and terms and conditions are coherent. That’s architecture. That’s what we do.
We can also point out risk areas – not to tell you what to write there, but to alert you. If you collect data via a form, the CNIL reminds you that a certain amount of information must be made available to the user: purpose of processing, legal basis, retention period, rights that can be exercised, contact point. If you use cookies, particularly for advertising purposes, prior consent is mandatory under the ePrivacy directive and the French framework – and the CNIL is very precise about what “free and informed consent” means in concrete terms. If you sell to private individuals, your CGVs are a legal obligation, with penalties for failure to comply (see Service-Public Entreprendre).
We can put all that on the table. What we can’t do: validate that your wording is legally correct, guarantee that you’re “100% compliant”, or draft the sensitive parts for you. This is not excessive caution. It’s professional rigor.
The method that works – the one we recommend to all our customers
Three actors. Three roles. No confusion.
The agency produces the technical layout: page structure, integration of a cookie consent management solution, versioning, accessibility from all interfaces (including mobile). It also ensures that the site can evolve rapidly without breaking consistency.
You (or your team) provide accurate information about your company, your data processing, your host, your publishing director if the site falls into the “online press” category, etc.
A lawyer or authorized professional validates the formulations, adjusts what needs to be adjusted, and can intervene on a regular basis – particularly when the site undergoes significant functional changes.
It’s not a heavy model. It’s a model that lasts. Compliance is no longer a document produced once at launch. It’s a living system, because your site, your marketing tools and regulations are constantly evolving.
A word about 2026 and beyond
The challenges of digital compliance will not diminish. Between changes in the European framework (the Digital Services Act is starting to produce its effects at all levels), growing pressure from the CNIL on tracking tools, and the multiplication of data collection points on professional sites, the question is no longer “do I have a legal notices page?” but “is my compliance mechanism up to date, coherent, and evolving?”
Agencies that anticipate this paradigm shift – by working with legal partners rather than trying to cover everything on their own – offer their clients a real competitive advantage. Not just in legal terms. In terms of user confidence, which becomes a performance factor in its own right.
So no, we don’t “take care” of your legal notices in the sense that you might think. But we do build the framework that enables your lawyer to do his job effectively, your users to access transparent information, and your site to stand the test of time.
That’s a lot. And that’s exactly where our role ends – and begins.