Many people decide to get into e-commerce in the light of the meteoric growth of online sales, while overlooking the legal prerequisites inherent in any entrepreneurial project.
There are many of them, however, and saying “I’ll look into it later”, for fear of falling behind on an opportunity, or simply out of negligence, can potentially be very costly.
So let’s take a look at the legal implications for ecommerce store owners, to avoid any nasty surprises down the line. 
What are the legal requirements for setting up an e-commerce store?
As soon as you launch your e-commerce store project, you need to ask yourself a number of essential questions about the legal form you wish to adopt for your business, as well as specific terms and conditions of sale.
Choosing the right status
The business status to adopt is specific to each type of activity, and involves, among other things, the volume of annual income you expect to generate, the type of products or services you wish to sell, whether you have a lot of charges you wish to deduct, and so on.
In general, the sole proprietorship (Entreprise Individuelle – EI) associated with the status of micro-entrepreneur is quite sufficient when you want to start a business without major investment.
This legal status enables e-traders to legalize their business quickly and without set-up costs, and is also applicable up to €188,700 in sales for the sale of goods and €77,700 for services or the liberal professions (ceilings that have been significantly raised compared with a few years ago).
So there’s plenty to look forward to!
What’s more, this status can be changed at any time for a more traditional legal status, such as SAS, SARL or SASU, which are advantageous for e-tailers and other web entrepreneurs.
A micro-enterprise can be set up entirely online (via this link, for example).
Please note, however, that micro-business status does not allow you to deduct expenses or recover VAT.
Specific and explicit terms and conditions of sale
The famous General Terms and Conditions of Sale, the ones that nobody really reads and that we hasten to draw up using prefabricated models.
They’re so important, in fact, that they’re mandatory, and their absence can result in a fine of between €3,000 and €15,000.
Every sale, no matter how quick and easy, is a contract in the eyes of the law, and the General Terms and Conditions of Sale on a merchant’s website constitute the contract of sale implicitly accepted by the seller and his customer.
In the event of a dispute, the Terms & Conditions are always the first point of reference, and it’s vital to draft them properly to avoid any misunderstandings later on.
Although free templates are available to help you out, they remain generic and are de facto unsuitable for a specific activity.
You should therefore modify them, and remove or add certain headings specific to your activity (please consult this link if you would like more details on the important statements to include in your GTC).
The same applies to Legal Information, which is the identification sheet for an online business. It is mandatory and necessary to ensure your credibility in the eyes of the law and your visitors.
Legal obligations specific to the operation of a sustainable e-commerce business
Now that your e-commerce store has been created and complies with the law, you still need to check that other mandatory elements (necessary throughout the life of the store) are also respected.
Data and payment protection
As such, it’s essential for site owners to clearly specify how data left by visitors and customers is handled.
This means informing visitors about the use of cookies (the famous pop-ups and banners that are compulsory at site entrances) and creating a “privacy policy” section to explain to visitors how their data is used (here too, templates exist, and they often require less reworking than for GTCs).
When it comes to payments, it’s mandatory for an online store to use a recognized third party to handle payments.
While cms such as Prestashop or Shopify integrate third-party payment solutions by default, an independent site must manually integrate a payment system.
This may be handled directly by a bank (Crédit Agricole, BNP…), by an independent service provider (Stripe, Payplug…) or by an online payment wallet system such as Paypal or Paylib.
It also goes without saying that your website must be secured by an HTTPS protocol, to ensure a sufficient level of security throughout the site.
Standards for the sale of certain products/services
Given the multitude of products and services that can be sold online, there are of course some that require special precautions, and whose sale, storage or transport are subject to specific standards.
This is the case, for example, with fresh food products, weapons or alcohol (minimum age requirements, prevention messages, licenses, documents to be provided, etc.).
It is the responsibility of every e-tailer wishing to sell a product or service likely to be subject to special measures to find out about existing standards.
Multiple, constantly evolving rules
While this article provides some insight into the legal implications for ecommerce store owners, it only scratches the surface of all the rules and exceptions that may affect the activities of an online store.
Other major rules, such as those governing individual ownership, need to be taken into account by e-tailers, and it’s important to bear in mind that e-commerce law is still very new, so it’s constantly evolving.
It is therefore essential to keep up to date with the legal obligations and changes that may affect your online business.
I’ve been an e-commerce expert and online store creator for 15 years, and I’ll be able to advise you on the elements you need to take into account when setting up or managing your e-commerce store.
So don’t hesitate to contact me.
