Australia’s Expanding Foreign Bribery Laws – A new offence for failing to prevent foreign bribery
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Partner
Australia
I am an experienced litigation and investigations lawyer based in Sydney, leading Bird & Bird's Australian disputes and investigations practice and co-leading our global Defence and Security practice.
Senior Associate
Australia
I am a senior associate in our Dispute Resolution Group in Sydney. My practice focuses on assisting clients to resolve commercial disputes, particularly for those clients in the technology sector.
Associate
Australia
I am an associate in the Dispute Resolution Group in Sydney, specialising predominantly in commercial disputes.
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Australia has finally, after two failed attempts, strengthened its laws for prosecuting foreign bribery by body corporates.
The legislation was introduced to the House of Representatives on 22 June 2023, and the Australian Parliament enacted the legislation on 29 February 2024.
The expanded regime aims to address a long-criticised absence of a foreign bribery offence of the type found in other developed nations like the United Kingdom and the USA for failing to prevent bribery.
So, what should Australian companies expect now that there is a corporate offence for failing to prevent bribery?
Primarily, Australian companies need to consider what changes may be required to their internal risk and compliance programmes to ensure that they have ‘adequate procedures’ in place to prevent the commission of bribery of foreign public officials by ‘associates’ of the company.
Below we set out what the changes mean, and most importantly what businesses operating in Australia should do over the next six months before these new laws come into operation.
What do these changes mean?
In our previous article we summarised the proposed changes.
The new offence
Importantly, under these new laws when they come into operation, Australian companies will be liable for failing to prevent foreign bribery by an associate (‘the Offence’).
The Offence is an absolute liability provision, so a company’s or individual’s intention in undertaking the bribery offence is irrelevant. The…
