Many companies engage in business practices outside the U.S. — they may sell to customers in other countries, purchase goods and materials from abroad, invest in companies or engage in joint ventures. Unfortunately the complex, regulation-heavy environment today poses some challenges.
For instance, companies are required to implement and maintain a compliance program to address potential legal issues for both international and domestic concerns.
At Clark-Reliance, all members of the sales team are trained to comply with updated domestic and foreign laws and regulations. Ultimately, we rely on our legal counsel to ensure that we are in compliance with these governmental requirements and help us develop appropriate training regimens.
Beware of the consequences
We’re certainly not attempting to provide legal advice here, but we would offer the following words of advice and caution: Business compliance laws, U.S. or international, should not be taken lightly because the consequences can result in corporate and personal criminal liability, hefty fines and potential revocation of business licenses.
We strongly encourage every business to work with legal professionals to ensure that their business is in compliance.
There are two broad categories of compliance of which companies should be aware: federal and state antitrust laws and commercial bribery and kickbacks, and foreign corrupt practices. The laws in these areas are longstanding, but the challenges of complying while competing in a fast-moving global economy have continued to mount.
For antitrust and bribery matters, review the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Robinson-Patman Act.
The Sherman Antitrust Act is a federal law that generally prohibits two or more companies from competitive price fixing, bid rigging, limitations on production or sale, allocations of business (dividing up customers or geographic markets) and boycotts (agree not to deal with particular suppliers or customers). The penalties for violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act can be severe, and they can be criminal and/or civil.
The Robinson-Patman Act Section 2(c) is a federal law that is best known as the price discrimination statute. Its purpose is designed to prevent producers from offering competitive customers different prices in order to gain a commercial advantage. Lesser known is the fact that the statute prohibits “dummy brokerage” and bribery.
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act is a federal law that makes its unlawful to corruptly offer, pay, promise or authorize money, gift, or anything of value, to an official of a foreign government, department, agency or “instrumentality,” directly or indirectly, to influence an official act or decision, or to get an improper advantage in effort to obtain or retain business or to direct business to any person.
Take responsibility
While doing business in a foreign country is alluring, inviting and potentially, incredibly lucrative, companies must take the responsibility to understand how their agents, sales people and executives are conducting business abroad.
As we grow our business through joint ventures in Brazil, India and beyond, we make certain that our employees are educated and know best practices before we allow them to engage on our behalf.
