Legal Aspects

By understanding the immense extent of damage caused by corruption, laws that seek to combat it have arisen around the world.

In Brazil, Law 12.846 / 13 imposes strict penalties for companies that commit acts of corruption. However, the law itself provides for a possible reduction in penalties if the company demonstrates the existence of an effective integrity mechanism, as defined in Decree 8.420 / 15, which regulates the legal text. The Complaints Channel is precisely one of the central pillars of the integrity mechanism provided by law.

Law N°. 12,846, AUGUST 1st, 2013 (Anti-Corruption Law or Clear Company Law)
It states about administrative and civil responsibility of legal persons that practiced acts against the public administration, national or foreign, and provides other measures:

Art. 7. Shall be taken into account in the application of sanctions: [...] VIII - existence of internal mechanisms and procedures for integrity, auditing and encouraging the report of irregularities and effective application of ethics codes and non-process conduct of the legal entity;

The need for the adoption of Denunciation Channels is also provided for in Law 13303/16:

LAW Nº 13.303, JUNE 30, 2016
States about the legal status of the public company, the joint stock company and its subsidiaries, does not belong to the Union, the States, the Federal District and the Municipalities:

Art. 9th: The public company and the joint stock company shall adopt rules of structures and practices of risk management and internal control that cover: [...] § 1. Code of Conduct and Integrity should be developed and disseminated, which provides for: [...] III - channel of denunciations that allows the receipt of internal and external complaints regarding noncompliance with the Code of Conduct and Integrity and other internal compulsory and ethics standards; IV - protection mechanisms that prevent any kind of retaliation from the person who uses the denunciations channel;

In the same sense, BACEN - Central Bank of Brazil, through Resolution 4,567 / 17, determines that all institutions must make available channels of complaints to their employees, collaborators, customers, users, partners and suppliers.

The creation of mechanisms to receive and investigate complaints has also been regulated in several other countries, such as: England, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, among others. In the United States, since the creation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), companies are required to create mechanisms to receive, retain and investigate complaints from employees. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act aimed at ensuring the creation of reliable auditing and security mechanisms in organizations, including rules for the creation of committees to oversee their activities and operations, in order to prevent fraud or to ensure that there is a way of identifying when they occur, ensuring transparency in the management of companies.