The New Anticorruption Law (Law Nº 12.846/2013)

The Anticorruption Law (Law No. 12.846/2013), which sets forth administrative and civil liability for corruption practices, indicates a change in the attitude and mentality of the companies, meaning that they now formally prevent the occurrence of wrongful acts, in compliance with the new law.

The law itself provides that application of the sanctions shall take into consideration the existence of internal anticorruption mechanisms and procedures, so that the companies that prove actual application of anticorruption compliance programs may be granted a less severe treatment in the event of an adverse judgment.

Due to the companies' interest in instituting this kind of strategy, anticorruption compliance programs may be delineated in accordance with the priorities and medes of each company, using several instruments, from the training of personnel, preparation of codes of ethics, codes of conduct, internal policies, development of ombudsman's mechanisms, denunciation, to internal audits, in addition to specific...