Germany does not have an independent corporate criminal law. The political demand for criminal penalties for companies has increased significantly in recent years.
The existing criminal law already provides a large number of sanctions and interventions that come close to an independent corporate criminal law. The regulations on criminal asset recovery have been tightened to such an extent that they are equivalent to a financial penalty.
With the possibility of prosecuting executives themselves for negligent breaches of supervisory duties by executives in accordance with Section 130 OWiG on the one hand and creating the link to a corporate fine in accordance with Section 30 (1) OWiG on the other, the legislator has provided the investigating authorities with a set of instruments that differs only slightly from an association fine.
As a result, company executives are exposed to a twofold risk, namely their own liability for fines on the one hand and internal liability towards their own company for its fines on the other. These constraints require particular caution in the run-up to official investigations and experienced assistance once investigations have been initiated, as fine proceedings are also conducted in accordance with the procedural law of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The company itself can also be charged by the public prosecutor's office as a legal entity and thus “be in the dock”. In this case, this is referred to as “secondary involvement” of the company. We regularly advise and defend companies in criminal and fine law risk situations.