Till Steinvorth, a member of Orrick’s Antitrust & Competition team in Düsseldorf, spoke with Global Investigations Review regarding a recent ruling from the German Federal Court of Justice on corporate fines. The court ruled that a company’s compliance management systems should be considered when calculating the fine the company must pay for the crime committed. However, the court did not specify what constitutes an effective compliance management system.

According to Till, companies will have to go beyond merely naming an employee responsible for compliance and issuing guidance to staff in order to prove a compliance regime is effective.

"Companies will have to be able to show that it's been properly implemented and that there have been regular internal audits to ensure compliance with the rules," Till said. "When wrongdoing has been uncovered, companies will need to be able to prove that they put in place measures to prevent any further infringements of the law."