A new regulation lately launched in Spain on the 23rd of December 2010 has introduced about a sizeable phase ahead in the generation of higher transparency and duty on the part of corporations and other legal entities. In this regulation it has been founded that a lawful entity (for instance a minimal legal responsibility firm) can now be considered to have prison liability and duly reply for these. This new determine overhauls a custom of numerous hundreds of years in which it was regarded that only persons can be held criminally liable. The new legislation establishes that legal entities can now be deemed criminally liable in the following cases:
1) On their have behalf or in their stead by the directors that represent them
2) Any person else who on behalf of or dependent on the administrators of the corporation has carried out a prison act in relation to the actions of the corporation.
The legal liability of a corporation does not in any way however exclude the criminal liability of the people today driving these activities and who ordered them. The determine of legal liability on the element of the administrators or any other legal reps of the firm has existed for some time and addresses this sort of spots as fraud, bribery, personal bribery (a new figure introduced in the exact law), money laundering, felony legal responsibility before the tax or the social safety administration, towards the ecosystem, city arranging or versus the legal rights of workers.
The penalties envisaged in the new law can be critical and go from the complete dissolution of the company or legal entity, the short-term suspension of their pursuits, the short term closure of any or all premises in the name of the business, the prohibition to concur contracts with the community administration or certainly judicial intervention as well as fiscal penalties.
It really should be remembered on the other hand that organizations can prevent getting held criminally liable if it is regarded as that they have exercised a ample degree of regulate (owing diligence or corporate compliance). For this purpose, given that the introduction of the new law, a lot of companies have introduced devices of control and corporate compliance the aim remaining to stay away from any potential statements made versus them for criminal carelessness. These techniques which were beforehand only released by more substantial organizations or multinationals are now looking at a broader acceptance on the portion of modest to medium-sized organizations. It is hoped that these new steps will enhance consumer self-assurance in an environment of distrust of the methods of many company bodies.