The first time most small suppliers hear the term DPA, it's from a customer's procurement team explaining that the contract can't proceed without one. The Data Processing Agreement is the most commonly missing legal document in B2B, and it costs more stalled deals than any certificate you could name.
A terms page looks like boilerplate until the day you need it, and on that day its absence decides the outcome. A customer disputes a charge, a competitor copies your material, a client wants a refund a year later — with terms, you point at the clause. Without them, default law fills the gaps, and default law was not written with your business in mind.
This is the first of the deep-dives on the legal pages every business needs, following the overview post.
Scroll to the footer of any ten small-business websites and count the legal pages. You'll usually find a privacy policy. Sometimes terms. Rarely a cookie policy that matches the cookies actually loaded. Almost never a data processing agreement or an accessibility statement — the two pages that lose deals and invite complaints.
The footer is the least loved part of a website, and it's where liability quietly lives. This post covers the full set; the next four go deep on each page.
Five years ago, the standard small-business climate move was simple: buy offsets, print "carbon neutral" on the website, done. In 2026, that playbook is not just outdated — the EU has effectively banned the consumer-facing version of it, and the voluntary carbon market has rebuilt itself around integrity rules. If your company buys offsets, or thinks it should, here's where things stand.
The glitter that made your lip scrub sparkle, the polymer beads in your face wash, the rubber crumb under the school football pitch — all of it is being phased out of the EU market under a single rule. If you make or sell cosmetics, detergents, fragrances or any consumer product with intentional synthetic microparticles, this one is already affecting you.
The restriction is Regulation (EU) 2023/2055, amending the REACH list of restrictions. Here's the practical version for a small brand.
If you sell clothing or shoes in France, you're already paying into a system that funds textile collection and recycling — and you may not even know it. France has run extended producer responsibility for textiles longer than anywhere else in the world. Now the EU is building a harmonised version for all 27 member states, and the habits you build in France today are the rehearsal for what's coming.
Everyone has seen the A-G sticker on a fridge. Almost nobody thinks about who had to register that fridge before it could be sold. If you import appliances, lighting or electronics into the EU — or stick your brand name on a factory's product — that someone is you.
The ecodesign and energy labelling rules are the oldest continuously enforced product regime in the EU, and they're changing around the edges as the ESPR replaces the old Ecodesign Directive. Here's what a small importer actually has to do.
Australia and New Zealand share a standards framework, a lot of product regulation, and one mark you'll meet in both: the RCM. If you sell electronics, electrical goods or anything with a radio Down Under, here's the system in plain terms — because the two countries share enough to be efficient and differ enough to trip you.
You've decided to publish your first sustainability report. Maybe a customer asked, maybe a bank hinted, maybe your competitors all have one. The first decision is which framework to follow — and for most small businesses, the answer is GRI.
The Global Reporting Initiative's standards are the most widely used voluntary sustainability reporting framework in the world. Here's what they are, how they fit with the EU's mandatory regime, and how a small company puts them to work.
The B Corp badge on a Ben & Jerry's pint is one of the most recognised sustainability marks in consumer goods — the company has held certification since 2012. What gets discussed less is what the process does for a small company, where the return is measured differently. That tension — management value versus marketing value — is the real B Corp story for small businesses. Here's the process with eyes open.