Legal Compliance and Corporate Responsibility
Corporate Compliance
Our corporate activity is governed by national and local laws and statutes that place a range of obligations on the Bayer Group and its employees throughout the world. Bayer manages its business responsibly in compliance with the statutory and regulatory requirements of the countries in which it operates.
Bayer expects legally and ethically impeccable conduct from all of its employees in daily business operations, as the way they carry out their duties affects the company’s reputation. By ensuring regular dialogue between employees and their supervisors and providing training courses involving the responsible Compliance Officers, the company endeavors to acquaint its employees with the numerous statutory and regulatory requirements of the countries where they work that are of relevance to them. This lays the foundation for managing the business responsibly and in compliance with the respective applicable laws.
The Group Management Board has summarized in its Corporate Compliance Policy the areas in which violations of applicable law can have particularly serious adverse consequences, both for the entire enterprise and for the individual employee. The principles set forth in the Corporate Compliance Policy are designed to guide employees in their business-related actions and protect them from potential misconduct. Its core messages concern the need to
Bayer expects legally and ethically impeccable conduct from all of its employees in daily business operations, as the way they carry out their duties affects the company’s reputation. By ensuring regular dialogue between employees and their supervisors and providing training courses involving the responsible Compliance Officers, the company endeavors to acquaint its employees with the numerous statutory and regulatory requirements of the countries where they work that are of relevance to them. This lays the foundation for managing the business responsibly and in compliance with the respective applicable laws.
The Group Management Board has summarized in its Corporate Compliance Policy the areas in which violations of applicable law can have particularly serious adverse consequences, both for the entire enterprise and for the individual employee. The principles set forth in the Corporate Compliance Policy are designed to guide employees in their business-related actions and protect them from potential misconduct. Its core messages concern the need to
- comply with antitrust regulations,
- ensure integrity in business transactions,
- observe sustainability principles,
- keep business and personal interests strictly separate and
- ensure fair and respectful working conditions within the enterprise.
Employees may contact either their respective supervisors or the local Compliance Officers for support and advice on ensuring legally compliant conduct in specific business situations.
Each Group company with business operations has at least one local Compliance Officer. Some foreign companies have several local Compliance Officers with clearly defined responsibilities for the different business units. The main responsibilities of each local Compliance Officer include:
- providing advice to the operational business units,
- assessing risks,
- running or arranging compliance training programs, investigating any reports of possible compliance violations and initiating appropriate corrective action, and
- meeting Group-level reporting obligations toward the Chief Subgroup Compliance Officers at the Group management companies.
The Chief Subgroup Compliance Officers in turn report to the Group Compliance Officer, who is appointed by the Group Management Board. At least once a year, the Group Compliance Officer and the Head of Corporate Auditing report to the Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board on any compliance violations that have been identified.
The issue of corporate compliance has now been made a permanent part of the performance targets agreed with the members of the Group Leadership Circle (GLC). By virtue of their positions, these executives have a special obligation to set an example to their employees, spread the compliance message increasingly within their companies and take organizational measures to implement it. Starting in 2010, a GLC member may be required to repay the short-term incentive awards granted for up to five of the preceding years if a systematic violation of applicable law that caused financial loss to Bayer was committed in one or more years by a direct report and appropriate action by the GLC member could have prevented the violation.