Here, an Impressum is a statement of facts about a business. Now, think of it as a more formal “About Us” page. Hence, it contains information about a company’s ownership, business address, and contact details.
Do We Need an Impressum?
Here, three German-speaking countries have national laws that require businesses to publish an Impressum:
- Germany
- Austria
- Switzerland
You can also need an Impressum by the law if your business is established in one of the countries or does a significant amount of interaction with people in these countries.
If the business does not have operations in any of these countries, you don’t need an Impressum.
About the Impressum
Here, before we talk you through what to include in your Impressum, let’s establish what is an Impressum in clear way.
Why Does Facebook Require Me to Add an Impressum?
Here, Facebook’s Pages, Groups and Events Policies require Page Admins to obey all the applicable laws:
So, where an Impressum is a legal requirement, Facebook does require you to have an Impressum if you can operate in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.
If you do not operate in these countries, Facebook does not require you to have an Impressum.
Difference Between a Privacy Policy and an Impressum?
Here, an Impressum is a list of information about your business. A Privacy Policy is an essential document, which explains how and why your business collects, uses, and shares personal information.
Thus, only Germany, Austria, and Switzerland require an Impressum by law. Hence, it will be best to have a Privacy Policy, pretty much wherever the company is based.
Thus, our Privacy Policy Generator makes it easy to create a Privacy Policy for your website. You have to follow these steps:
- You should click on the “Privacy Policy Generator” button.
- At step 1, you can select the Website option and click the “Next step”:
- You have to answer the questions about your website and click “Next step” when finished:
- You need to answer the questions about your business practices and click “Next step” when finished:
- Now, select translation versions and click “Generate” enter your email address where you’d like your policy sent
.
- You will be able to instantly access and download your new Privacy Policy.
Hence, if the business serves customers in California, the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) requires you to create a Privacy Policy. Then, you should comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if you have customers in the UK or the EU.
Here, a Privacy Policy requires some of the same sorts of information as an Impressum, such as your company’s name and contact details. Still, it’s a much more extensive document than an Impressum.
What do we Include in Your Facebook Page Impressum?
Here, a German law, known as the Telemedia Act (English version available here), sets out the requirements for what must include in an Impressum.
Name of the business owner.
Then, the registered address of the business.
Contact details, including an email address.
Here, the registration information, including the name of the register and the registration number.
Hence, the relevant chamber’s details, designation, and professional rules if the business is part of a regulated profession.
Here, VAT ID number or business ID number, if applicable.
Here is an excerpt from Audi’s Facebook Page Impressum:
You can note that Audi lists the members of its Managing Board rather than a single business owner.
And here’s an example from Deutsche Telekom:
Here, Bosch does this differently. Therefore, the Impressum section of Bosch’s Facebook page contains a link to its Impressum:
The Impressum itself is hosting on Bosch’s website. Here is an excerpt from Bosch’s Impressum:
Hence, linking your Facebook page to a separate Impressum is a good idea for readability if your Impressum has much information.
How do we add an Impressum to Your Facebook Page?
Here, adding an Impressum to your Facebook Page is simple.
Now log into your Facebook Page and select “Edit Page Info.”
On the Page Info page, you may scroll down to the “More” section and enter your business information in the “Impressum” field.
You have a Facebook limit Impressums to 2,000 characters. Therefore, it should be enough to enter all the information required.