Actually, I’m aghast at this act – requiring regulatory information in email footers just does not make any sense to me. What purpose does it serve? What benefit does it give? What problem does it prevent?

Although I don’t think there’s any benefit to HTML emails (do we REALLY need color & fonts in an email??), I’d prefer HTML emails over, say, Outlook’s RTF format. (And if you send HTML emails, you should send them in plain text & HTML together, unless you know the recipient can read HTML emails. Thunderbird, the email client I use, does this very nicely of course!)

p.s. I’ve updated the post with some information on “mandated” email signatures. I don’t approve of them, but I understand now that some people don’t have a choice.

Companies in the UK (and in Germany) must include certain regulatory information on in their email footers before 1 January 2007 or they will breach the Companies Act and risk a fine.

Every company should list its company registration number, place of registration, and registered office address on its website as a result of an update to the legislation of 1985. The information, which must be in legible characters, should also appear on order forms and in emails. Such information is already required on “business letters” but the duty is being extended to websites, order forms and electronic documents.

Learn here why I recommend using HTML emails:
http://www.emailsignature.eu/phpBB2/what-are-the-different-email-formats-recommendation-t320.html