Following a decision by the Federal Court of Justice which found that the existing anti-corruption provisions do not apply to independent healthcare professionals, the German Bundestag introduced a new provision which will close this gap.
Due to the large number of registrations for our Breakfast Briefings in Munich on December 14, 2015 and in Düsseldorf on December 15, 2015, we have decided to hold a third breakfast briefing on December 16, 2015 in Frankfurt am Main. The seminar will focus on the new law against bribery and its practical implications.
On November 26, 2015, Germany’s new law combatting commercial corruption came into force. The law amends the provision on commercial bribery in the German Criminal Code.
The Higher Regional Court in Munich ruled that the management of a parent company may have a supervisory duty which is not limited to the partent company itself, but which extends to the group of companies.
This article summarizes the anti-corruption developments in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) during the first half of 2015. Recent trends in the EMEA region concern, above all, a strong dynamics to tighten legal provisions on anti-corruption legislation in the light of international recommendations by OECD and UN;…
In a recently published decision of April 22, 2015 (file no 5/12 Qs 1/15), the district court in Frankfurt am Main ruled that bribing the managing director of a limited liability company is not a criminal offense under Section 299 German Criminal Code, if the managing director is also the…
In August 2014, the Federal Court of Justice handed down a recently publish decision in connection with the creation of slush funds. The 5th Criminal Senate concluded that the creation of an external slush fund constitutes embezzlement / breach of trust (section 266 German Criminal Code). What had happened? The…
The Cybersecurity Unit of the US Department of Justice recently published guidance on “Best Practices for Victim Response and Reporting of Cyber Incidents.” The guidance is available here. The document aims at assisting organizations in preparing a cyber incident response plan and responding to a cyber incident. It was drafted…
The German Federal Ministry of Justice (Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz) proposed a draft bill which extends corruption legislation to independent healthcare professionals. On March 29, 2012 the German Federal Supreme Court had to decide the following case (file no. GSSt 2/11): A medical representative of a pharma company…
Various countries and their compliance-enforcing agencies request that companies have “adequate” compliance programs and organizations. But what does that mean? One option to determine whether a compliance program and organization is adequate is to compare the company’s own program and organization with the compliance efforts of other companies (industry standard).…