Acting Responsibly

Compliance, Integrity and Legal Affairs in Day-to-day Work

We are convinced that only those who act responsibly can achieve sustained success over the long term. For us, this involves more than just obeying laws, as we also seek to align our activities with shared principles and values.
 

Integrity, compliance and legal affairs

Integrity, compliance and legal affairs are of great strategic significance for our company. As such, they are combined in one Board of Management area at Mercedes-Benz Group AG, under the leadership of Renata Jungo Brüngger. The purpose of this Board of Management area is to permanently anchor these issues in our corporate units. As firm elements of our corporate culture and daily business activities, integrity and compliance contribute to the company’s lasting success. The basis for this is our Integrity Code. It defines guidelines for our daily business conduct, offers the employees orientation, and helps them make the right decisions even in difficult business situations. The Integrity Code is supplemented by other internal principles and guidelines.

A culture of integrity. 

Together with passion, discipline and respect, integrity is one of the four corporate values that form the foundation for our business activities. For us, integrity means doing the right thing. More specifically, we adhere to internal and external regulations, we act in accordance with our corporate values and we listen to our inner compass. We are deliberate in making difficult decisions and we also openly address critical issues. We expect all of our employees and business partners to adhere to the principles of our culture of integrity out of a sense of conviction.

Value-based compliance

Compliance is an indispensable part of our daily business activities. For us this means acting in accordance with laws and regulations. All of our employees should carry out their work in a manner that is in compliance with the applicable laws, regulations, voluntary commitments, and our values. 

With our comprehensive trainings, we want to ensure that our employees act with integrity and compliance in the long run. Our independent legal and compliance organizations support and provide advice on this. In order to detect any violations of our principles, we encourage our employees and external parties to report concrete indications of misconduct to our Whistleblower System Business Practices Office (BPO). 

Compliance and integrity are also incorporated in our compensation and sanction processes. We collaborate closely with our business partners to make integrity and compliance an integral part of their company's activities.