1.2.1.4. Electronic Delivery of Registration Documents
According to the SEC, a company may provide its customers electronic access to prospectuses, shareholder reports, and proxy solicitations if the electronic access satisfies four properties: same content, timely notice, equivalent access, and evidence of delivery.
Same content. The content of the electronic documents must be the same as the paper version of the documents.
Timely notice. Investors must be notified in a timely and adequate manner that the electronic documents are available to them. In this case, timely means at least by the time that paper documents would be or would have been sent out. Adequate means either as an email with the document attached or as an email informing the customer that the document is available on a website with an attached link.
Equivalent access. Customers must have appropriate access to the documents. Access to the prospectus should be equivalent to a printed version of the prospectus. Thus, they must be able to either print out the document or save it on their own computers. The prospectus should be made readily available for as long as the delivery rules require. Readily available is considered to be one click away from the web page. The prospectus can be in either HTML or PDF format.
When a company provides a prospectus as a PDF download, the company must obtain the customer’s consent to an electronic format. The company must also inform customers of the requirements to download the PDF and provide any necessary software or technical assistance in downloading the PDF at no cost to the customer.
Evidence of delivery. When providing these documents electronically, the company must have reason to believe that the documents were in fact delivered. To show evidence of delivery, the company first must obtain the customer’s consent to receive the documents in an electronic format. The consent could be in paper, in electronic format, or by phone and can