{"id":1035,"date":"2008-08-14T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-14T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2008-08-14T08:45:08","modified_gmt":"2008-08-14T07:45:08","slug":"sec-interpretive-release-part-2-antifraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/sec-interpretive-release-part-2-antifraud\/","title":{"rendered":"SEC Interpretive Release Part 2 &#8211; Antifraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the SEC positions taken in 2000 when they addressed company web sites was that companies are responsible for the accuracy of statements made on their websites that could reasonably be expected to reach investors or securities markets.\u00a0 This in turn makes statements made on a company&#8217;s website subject to antifraud provisions of federal securities laws.\u00a0 Noted specifically is Exchange Act Section 10(b) which prohibits making material misstatements and omissions of fact.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Good News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the 2000 Electronics Release, the SEC noted possible liability arising from accessing previously posted material on a company&#8217;s web site.\u00a0 The SEC notes that &#8220;some companies&#8221; continue to be concerned about whether or not previously posted materials that are accessed later by web site users would be considered &#8220;republished&#8221;.\u00a0 In 2005, the SEC addressed this issue, but only in the context of registered offerings under the Securities Act.\u00a0 Now, it seems, the SEC is ready to put this issue to bed.<\/p>\n<p>The Interpretive Release states that the SEC does not believe that &#8220;companies maintaining previously posted materials or statements on their web sites are reissuing or republishing such materials or information for purposes of the antifraud provisions of federal securities laws just because the materials or statements remain accessible to the public.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yippee!\u00a0 A straight answer!\u00a0 Maintaining historical materials on a company website is not considered republishing.\u00a0 There is a catch, however.\u00a0 In circumstances where it is not apparent to a reasonable person that materials are from an earlier date then things might be different.\u00a0 So, previously posted materials should be identified as historical by dating them.\u00a0 Most companies tend to do this already.\u00a0 But, also, the SEC recommends that such materials be &#8220;Located in a separate section of the company&#8217;s web site containing previously posted materials or statements.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Investor Relations Web Site Best Practices<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not all companies were taking the hard line approach discussed by the SEC in regards to posting historical materials on their web sites, but none the less, the elements contained within the Interpretive Release give some guidance as to how the IR portion of the web site should be constructed.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the items outlined from the first section of the release, we have two new items to add to the best practices list.<\/p>\n<p>First, all items should be dated.\u00a0 For the most part, all official materials are already dated.\u00a0 However, by making a date a requirement for anything posted to the IR pages, a company can ensure continued compliance particularly with materials that are &#8220;current&#8221; today, but will be &#8220;historical&#8221; sometime in the future.\u00a0 An existing date when the material is first published eliminates the possibility that materials will inadvertently be archived without a date later.<\/p>\n<p>Second, all historical or archived materials should be kept in a separate area.\u00a0 Though not explicitly stated, a separate page with a large &#8220;ARCHIVE&#8221; or &#8220;HISTORICAL&#8221; heading across the top will be a great way to prevent any &#8220;reasonable person&#8221; from being unable to distinguish between new and old materials.<\/p>\n<p>Chances are most IR web sites are at least somewhat on board with these issues already, but for those that aren&#8217;t, your reason to make some changes has arrived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the SEC positions taken in 2000 when they addressed company web sites was that companies are responsible for the accuracy of statements made on their websites that could reasonably be expected to reach investors or securities markets.\u00a0 This in turn makes statements made on a company&#8217;s website subject to antifraud provisions of federal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[8246,1901,75,402],"class_list":{"0":"post-1035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-all-stakeholders","7":"category-best-practices","8":"tag-best-practices","9":"tag-interpretive-release","10":"tag-investor-relations","11":"tag-sec","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SEC Interpretive Release Part 2 - Antifraud - Corporate Eye<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/sec-interpretive-release-part-2-antifraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SEC Interpretive Release Part 2 - Antifraud - Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the SEC positions taken in 2000 when they addressed company web sites was that companies are responsible for the accuracy of statements made on their websites that could reasonably be expected to reach investors or securities markets.\u00a0 This in turn makes statements made on a company&#8217;s website subject to antifraud provisions of federal [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/sec-interpretive-release-part-2-antifraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-14T13:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/images\/logo.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brian Nelson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brian Nelson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/sec-interpretive-release-part-2-antifraud\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/sec-interpretive-release-part-2-antifraud\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brian Nelson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/32f068c291e99095f08b77c52e751be2\"},\"headline\":\"SEC Interpretive Release Part 2 &#8211; 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