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News in the area of ​​criminal liability of legal entities

News in the area of ​​criminal liability of legal entities

We would like to inform you about the latest change in the area of ​​criminal liability of legal entities. On 1 December 12, "Act No. 2016/183 Coll. amending Act No. 2016/418 Coll., on the criminal liability of legal entities and proceedings against them, as amended," came into effect, which brought several important changes.

The first significant change is the considerable expansion of criminal offenses that can be committed by a legal entity. In contrast to the previous regulation, which by reference to individual facts in the criminal code, explicitly stated the criminal acts that a legal person can commit, the new legal person will be able to be responsible in principle for all criminal acts contained in the criminal code, with the exception of those in which the Act on Criminal Liability of Legal Entities expressly excludes this. Newly, a legal person can commit, for example, the criminal offense of violating protected industrial rights, the criminal offense of spreading a contagious animal disease, the criminal offense of defamation or the criminal offense of public endangerment.

In accordance with the expansion of criminal offenses that can be committed by a legal entity, the lists of criminal offenses for which effective remorse is excluded, the statute of limitations on the criminal liability of legal entities, and the statute of limitations on the execution of a sentence imposed on a legal entity are excluded.

The second significant change concerns the imputability of a criminal offense to a legal entity. A legal entity shall be exempted from criminal liability if it has made all efforts that could reasonably be required of it to prevent the commission of an illegal act by persons acting on its behalf or by its employees. It is now possible for a legal entity to be freed from criminal liability also for the actions of statutory bodies or managers and not only for the actions of "ordinary" employees, as was the case until now.

All efforts that can be fairly demanded of a legal entity must be interpreted as meaning that the legal entity not only complies with all laws and other legal regulations, but also, for example, that the legal entity has a so-called compliance system focused on the prevention and detection of actions , which could fulfill the factual essence of the crime. The law does not define what specific measures a legal entity should take, and it will be up to the court jurisprudence to make this definition. It can be considered that these measures can be the relevant internal regulations governing the behavior of employees in individual situations, the implementation of employee training, but also, for example, the implementation of checks to see if the required measures are observed by employees, with the understanding that the introduction and implementation of these measures would be it is desirable to have written records, which, if necessary, can be presented to law enforcement authorities as evidence of the legal entities' efforts to comply with the measures.
Due to the fundamental expansion of criminal acts for which a legal entity may be criminally liable, and at the same time to the possibility of exoneration from its criminal liability in the event of the existence and observance of an effective compliance system, we recommend devoting due effort to the establishment and observance of this compliance system.

If you are interested in assistance with the implementation of the aforementioned compliance system, our colleagues specializing in criminal law issues are ready to help you.

JUDr. Ing. Jan Vych,
attorney / partner

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Law firm Vych and partners