Compliance

Compliance, refers to the adherence to laws, contractual regulations and other rules in a company by its employees. It is the company’s job to ensure that the laws are complied with. This situation arises for companies, i.e. legal persons, because laws must in principle be observed by everyone. The company and the persons in charge are therefore responsible for compliance with laws. To this end, they are free to take certain organisational and supervisory measures in order to, for instance, avoid being punished themselves.

For this reason, especially in larger companies, certain intra-company labour law regulations are frequently drawn up, so-called compliance management systems, in order to discharge this function. For adhering to these organisational and supervisory obligations, the company can set up organisation departments for the purposes of internal compliance and delegate these obligations to them.

In doing so a company can, for example, establish a central compliance area, form a compliance committee or leave the responsibility with company management. There are many different possibilities. Ultimately, it is for the company in question to effectively enforce compliance.

Compliance, and in particular its implementation, represents a large challenge for many companies. Seek the advice of a lawyer experienced in these matters.