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In April of this year, the Allensbach opinion pollsters interviewed approx. 250 deciders of larger enterprises – having at least 250 employees or EUR 50 million annual sales or more – about the importance of compliance for their businesses. Of those interviewed, 55% were from the manufacturing industry, close to one third (32%) were service providers, and the rest was active in commerce and trading or other sectors, respectively.

A vast majority (81 %) rates the relevance of compliance more or less highly; only 19% deem that subject negligible. It is conspicuous that companies with sales of EUR 250 million and more attribute higher relevance to the topic, as compared to companies below this sales level (89% versus 71%). The latter group of companies also indicated significantly more frequently that they have a low rating regarding compliance (25% versus 11% for large companies).

The same pattern is also evident concerning the question of whether an explicit compliance guideline exists in the company. A total of 58% of those interviewed do have such a guiding principle, but large companies twice as often as smaller ones (76%/38%). The difference is even more significant where systematic compliance management is concerned: A total of 54% of the large companies have a compliance management system or are planning its introduction; this is the case in not even one third of the smaller businesses (31%). "In small and medium-sized companies, there is apparently still a large gap between insight and action", that's how Kerkhoff founder and managing director Gerd Kerkhoff commented these figures.

Compliance skeptics especially shy away from the expenditures which, in their opinion, the introduction of a compliance management system would entail (52%). And there is yet another reason for abstinence until now: "That's so far not been any subject for us" (38%) – which is a negligent attitude, as Sabrina Keese emphasizes: "Companies are well advised to take compliance risks seriously and not to wait until it's too late", said the attorney-at-law at Kerkhoff Legal in her talk with 'Einkäufer im Markt'. She made reference to examples of antitrust law violations where the imposed antitrust penalties resulted in the economic loss of assets and substance of the companies involved.

Purchasing presents risk factor number 1

According to the Allensbach survey, the biggest risk of compliance violations exists in Purchasing (76%), followed by Sales (70%) and the Finance department (69%). It is here evident that especially the interviewed industrial companies perceive the purchasing department as the critical point. Altogether 88% consider purchasing as that corporate function which is particularly important from the compliance point of view. To ensure compliance, companies primarily rely on the four-eyes principle – important decisions must not be made by only one person alone; and they also rely on a quality management system (96% or, respectively, 90% of those interviewed). These companies also mention as most important subjects for compliance management: handling confidential business data, corruption, and anti-competitive agreements or price-fixing arrangements in violation of antitrust laws. Especially interesting from a purchasing point of view: Only 44% of the participants in the survey have a supplier code which obligates suppliers to comply with the rules specified by the customer (55% of large companies, 31 % of smaller companies).

Most of the time, it's the superior who'll be responsible for compliance breaches

According to the study, almost all companies with a compliance guideline distribute it to their employees. Nearly three fourths of the companies offer special trainings so that the workforce will be familiarized with the application of the guideline. Altogether 58% of the companies use the employment contract to obligate their employees to keep up to date with regard to the company's compliance principles. Only a minority of the interviewed companies (24%) has a formal procedure to punish compliance violations; a majority (54%) of them will decide from case to case, and the rest pursues a zero-tolerance policy. If an employee breaches the guidelines, his or her superior will be liable for it in the majority of companies (54%). This explicitly does not apply in 16% of the cases, and 28% of the companies said: "That depends".
Mark Krieger