A Comprehensive Study of the New U.K. Bribery Act and What It Means for Multinational Corporations

January 27, 2011

Over the past several years the world of corporate regulatory and criminal law compliance has focused to an ever-greater extent on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)–and with good reason. In 2010 alone, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission combined for 74 FCPA enforcement actions, up from only 5 in 2004. Although other countries also actively prosecute overseas bribery, to date the United States has clearly led the way. In several months, however, this may change.

In April, the United Kingdom’s anti-bribery enforcers at the Serious Fraud Office will operate under a new legal framework that is in many ways operatively stricter and jurisdictionally broader than the FCPA. The new U.K. Bribery Act applies broadly to all commercial organizations that do business in the United Kingdom (regardless of where the criminal conduct occurs), makes organizations liable for the improper activities of third parties acting on their behalf, criminalizes entirely private (i.e., non-governmental) bribery, and provides no exception for small payments made to expedite or facilitate ministerial governmental actions.

This new regulatory framework is naturally cause for concern and a challenge for multinational corporations. To help explain the various facets of the new law and highlight particular compliance challenges on which multinationals should focus, Joe Warin, Charles Falconer, and Michael Diamant of Gibson Dunn authored the article, "The British Are Coming!: Britain Changes Its Law on Foreign Bribery and Joins the International Fight Against Corruption." The article represents the first comprehensive academic study of the Bribery Act. In addition to providing a thorough discussion of the Bribery Act’s contents and how it differs from the FCPA, the article discusses in detail the current U.K. anti-bribery enforcement infrastructure and how the United Kingdom may cooperate further in the future with U.S. regulators prosecuting international bribery.

Reprinted with permission from the Texas International Law Journal, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Fall 2010), © 2010 Texas International Law Journal.

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