Online gardening sites are multiplying, driven by the growing demand for plants, tools, and phytopharmaceutical products. This growth is accompanied by a legal framework that goes beyond the classic legal notices. Compliance of sold products, management of personal data, commercial prospecting, digital accessibility: the legal obligations cover a much broader scope than what a simple “Legal Notices” page might suggest.
Commercial Prospecting and Consent: A Distinct Obligation from Cookies
The confusion between cookie management and commercial prospecting remains common on gardening e-commerce sites. However, the CNIL treats these two subjects separately. In 2025, a decision on July 3 sanctioned a distance selling company for failures in consent regarding electronic commercial prospecting.
For a gardening site, this means clearly distinguishing several communication flows: voluntary subscription to a seasonal newsletter, automatic reminders for abandoned carts, offers sent by partners, and messages addressed to former customers. Each channel requires its own legal basis.
A concrete example illustrates this requirement: a customer who purchased tomato plants can receive offers on similar products (potting soil, stakes) without new consent, provided they have been informed and can easily opt out. In contrast, sending them promotions for a landscaping partner requires explicit and distinct consent. This type of rigor is found in the legal information on Bois & Jardin 42, which formalizes the site’s commitments to its visitors.
Mandatory Legal Notices for a Professional Gardening Site
Every professional website must display easily accessible legal notices. For a sole trader, the regulations impose a set of specific elements:
- The complete identity of the business (name, surname, address, mention “sole trader” or initials EI), the registration number with the RCS, and the VAT identification number.
- An operational contact method (email address and phone number), as well as the identity of the site’s host (name or company name, address, phone).
- For regulated activities, such as the sale of phytopharmaceutical products, the mention of the required authorization or certificate (the Certiphyto for example, mandatory for the distribution of these products).
These notices must appear on a dedicated page or in the T&Cs, but remain accessible with one click from any page of the site. The absence or incompleteness of this information exposes one to administrative sanctions.
Compliance of Gardening Products Sold Online
The DGCCRF regularly conducts targeted investigations on DIY and gardening products. During a control campaign, 161 establishments were visited and 35 samples taken. The findings are significant: 26% of the analyzed products were declared non-compliant and dangerous, with samples targeted at the most suspicious products.
The identified non-compliances primarily concerned product information (incomplete instructions, missing markings), but also construction anomalies. For an online gardening site, the responsibility is direct: the seller must ensure that each product offered for sale complies with applicable standards and that technical information, safety warnings, and regulatory markings are reproduced on the product sheet.
Digital Product Passport: An Emerging Obligation
The European Commission is developing the concept of a digital product passport, which could eventually apply to gardening tools and equipment. This system aims to make traceable the composition, origin, and recyclability of each item. The available data does not yet allow for a precise application timeline for the gardening sector, but e-commerce sites that structure their product sheets with this data now will gain an advantage.
Personal Data and Retention Period: A Neglected Control Point
Beyond consent to cookies, data minimization and retention period constitute concrete operational obligations. A gardening site collects customer accounts, delivery addresses, order histories, and sometimes cultivation preferences.
Each category of data must be associated with a documented retention period. Retaining a customer’s address indefinitely who has not ordered in several years constitutes a breach. Deleting or anonymizing old data is not a theoretical exercise: it is a point that the CNIL checks during its inspections.
Digital Accessibility: A Compliance Angle in Its Own Right
Digital accessibility is not just a moral commitment. For an online gardening store, it concerns keyboard navigation, the proper functioning of order forms, color contrasts on product sheets, alternative texts for plant photos, and the readability of delivery information.
This topic is rarely addressed on the compliance pages of gardening sites, even though it is part of the legal obligations for companies exceeding certain revenue thresholds. Even below these thresholds, an accessible site broadens its customer base and reduces its exposure to potential claims.
The compliance of an online gardening site goes far beyond publishing a legal notices page. Commercial prospecting, product traceability, data retention, accessibility: each aspect corresponds to a distinct regulatory text and specific controls. Treating these obligations separately, with up-to-date documentation, remains the only approach that holds up against the intensification of inspections.
