Compliance Officer

The compliance officer is the person inside an organisation responsible for ensuring that the company, its management and its employees act in line with applicable laws, regulatory requirements and internal policies. The role is not codified in a single statute but is derived from the management duty of supervision under § 130 of the Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz (OWiG) and from the corporate fine regime in § 30 OWiG. Both norms mean that if a company fails to install adequate organisational measures to prevent regulatory breaches, the management can be held personally liable and the entity itself can be fined up to 10 million euros under § 30 Abs. 2 OWiG, plus skimming of the economic benefit. § 91 Abs. 2 AktG requires every stock corporation to run a monitoring system so that developments endangering its continued existence are recognised early, and § 91 Abs. 3 AktG requires listed companies to add an adequate and effective internal control and risk management system; in practice both are operationalised through compliance. The accepted national standard for the structure of a compliance management system is IDW PS 980, published by the Institute of Public Auditors in Germany (IDW), defining the seven elements of compliance culture, objectives, risks, programme, organisation, communication and monitoring. From 02 August 2026 the EU AI Act adds a new layer: providers of high-risk AI systems must implement risk management, technical documentation and human oversight under Art. 9 to Art. 17 AI Act, and deployers must meet the duties of Art. 26 AI Act, with fines up to 35 million euros or 7 percent of global annual turnover. A compliance officer translates these duties into written policies, training, whistleblower intake under the Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz (HinSchG) and documented controls that hold up in an external audit.

Appointing one does not move the responsibility. § 130 OWiG addresses the owner of the business and its leadership; delegating a task keeps the duty to select, brief and supervise the person it was delegated to. § 9 OWiG brings that person under obligation in addition, not instead. In practice the function only works where reporting line, resources and escalation rights are set down in writing and the officer reports directly to management. A compliance function reporting two levels into the division it is meant to examine will not survive scrutiny.