E-mail signature

As a small business owner, do the emails that you send have a signature? If so, what information does the signature contain?

Usually, email signatures contain the sender's name, organization, department, address, phone number, email address and website. Of course, if you work in a company, there might be rules as to what has to be included in the email signature.

Different countries also have different legal requirements for email signatures. In Germany for example, if you work in an organization, your email signature has to include the name of the organization, legal form, headquarters of the company, court of registration, registration number and registration place. Ireland's and UK's limited companies have to disclose the same information.

However, if you work in a limited liability company in Germany, you will even have to disclose additional information: The name of the CEO and the chairman of the supervisory board (if one was formed) with at least one full given name and surname. Germany's public limited companies even have to put the names of all board members and the chairman in the email signature in addition to the requirements mentioned before.

Many companies and organizations in the US also add a legal disclaimer to their email signature. Many lawyers argue that this is necessary.
In the US, organizations and companies have to comply witht the Companies Act 2006: The email signature has to contain the company’s name, number, registered office, incorporation country and registered number in their email signature. Also, including contact information, such as phone or fax number, address, email address and website is useful if clients want to contact you.

An email signature for a company - in any country - may look like this:

First name, name
Name of organization and legal form
Department

776 Street
City, FL 49956
Phone 996-445-2343
Fax 996-445-2344
name@website.com
www.website.com

Number
Registered office
Incorporation country
Registered number