Clifford Chance
Corporate Liability in Europe
14 February 2012
This European survey of corporate criminal liability seeks, on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, to answer some common questions on a subject which features regularly in boardroom agendas.
The survey looks at whether there is a concept of corporate criminal liability in several European jurisdictions. We consider the underlying principles of such liability and the relationship with individual officers' liability. We look at whether there are any specific defences, or mitigating factors, and at the type and level of penalties.
What our survey shows is not only that corporate liability has been introduced in most jurisdictions enabling courts to sanction corporate entities for their criminal acts; but that there is also a general trend in most countries towards bringing corporate entities to book for their criminal acts or the criminal acts of their officers. In those countries where there is no criminal liability per se, there is either quasi-criminal liability or the introduction of corporate criminal liability is being considered. A notable exception is Germany, where the strong feeling is that imposing corporate criminal liability would offend against the basic principles of the German Criminal Code. Nevertheless Germany's regulators have taken robust regulatory action against various German companies as a result of their criminal conduct, imposing large fines which have caused significant reputational damage. Arguably, this has been as effective as any criminal sanction.
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Corporate Liability in Europe
