With the maximum length of text messages currently limited to
160 characters by screen displays, the registration details of
companies would take up the vast majority of that space. Company
law provides that: “every company shall have its name mentioned in
legible characters... in all business letters of the company, in
all its notices and other official publications” or it is liable to
a fine. Further, “every company shall have the following
particulars mentioned in legible characters in all business letters
and order forms of the company, that is to say –
(a) the company’s place of registration and
the number with which it is registered,
(b) the address of it’s registered office,
(c) in the case of an investment company (...) the fact that it is
such a company, and
(d) in the case of a limited company exempt from the obligation to
use the word ‘limited’ as part of its name, the fact that it is a
limited company.”
A DTI consultation paper which considers reviews and
modernisations to UK company law acknowledges that current law is
ambiguous about application to e-mail. The paper states:
"It is arguable whether this requirement
applies to equivalent electronic communication such as e-mails and
publications on web sites. We consider that the Act should apply
regardless of the method of delivery. In any event, the Act should
be clear in this respect".
However, the paper makes no mention of text messages.
OUT-LAW.COM spoke to Alan Freundlich of the Company Law &
Investigations Directorate at the DTI. He said he was unaware of
any proposals to extend the current position to text messaging.
Text messaging is currently an extremely popular method of
communication, a fact that advertising companies have picked up on.
The monthly volume of text messages sent in the UK is expected to
exceed one billion for the first time during August, according to a
report released by the UK based Mobile Data Association. This
estimate only includes person-to-person messaging, not text
messages sent by web sites and SMS marketers.
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