Complaints procedure under Section 8 LkSG

How this runs

1. 1

   Scope and stock-take

   We establish how many employees each company has in Germany and what complaint routes exist today. Section 1 Para. 1 LkSG attaches the Act to normally at least 1,000 employees in Germany, and Section 1 Para. 3 LkSG attributes the German employees of all group companies to the parent within affiliated undertakings. The assessment in the individual case is your legal department's; we supply the figures and the open points.

2. 2

   Participation and criteria check

   Participation in the external procedure is agreed in writing. Section 8 Para. 1 sentence 6 LkSG permits it only where the procedure meets the criteria of Paras. 2 to 4, so that check is documented rather than assumed. You receive the rules of procedure, the naming of the entrusted people with their independence and confidentiality declarations, and a description of the access routes, in a form you can attach to your reporting and to an inspection.

3. 3

   Making it known along the chain

   A procedure only works once the people it protects know about it. The information required by Section 8 Para. 4 sentence 1 LkSG on reachability, responsibility and conduct of the procedure is made publicly accessible and built into supplier communication, purchasing terms and the policy statement under Section 6 Para. 2 LkSG. Where a works council exists, internal access is agreed with it.

4. 4

   Running the procedure

   Every report passes through acknowledgement under Section 8 Para. 1 sentence 3 LkSG, discussion with the person who raised it under sentence 4 and, where it fits, an offer of amicable settlement under sentence 5. Reports about the conduct of indirect suppliers are taken in through the same procedure, as Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG requires. The state of play and the options go to your decision-making body, and the decision on preventive and remedial measures stays there.

5. 5

   Evidence, analysis and the report

   Documentation runs continuously in the workspace and is built for the minimum seven year retention under Section 10 Para. 1 sentence 2 LkSG. For the annual report we supply the part Section 10 Para. 2 sentence 2 no. 2 LkSG expressly requires: the measures the company has taken on the basis of complaints under Section 8 or Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG. The anonymised analysis feeds back into your risk analysis.

The legal frame

These provisions determine who needs a complaints procedure, who may run it, how it has to be built and what a failure costs. Each is quoted in the German original, because that is the wording that binds, with the effect stated underneath.

Section 8 Para. 1 sentences 1 and 6 LkSG

Das Unternehmen hat dafür zu sorgen, dass ein angemessenes unternehmensinternes Beschwerdeverfahren nach den Absätzen 2 bis 4 eingerichtet ist. Die Unternehmen können sich stattdessen an einem entsprechenden externen Beschwerdeverfahren beteiligen, sofern es die nachfolgenden Kriterien erfüllt.

Sentence 1 creates the duty; sentence 6 expressly allows it to be met through an external procedure, which is the legal basis of this service. The conditional clause is the substance: participation holds only in so far as the external procedure actually meets the criteria of Paras. 2 to 4. A company that takes part checks those criteria and records the check.

Section 8 Paras. 3 and 4 LkSG

Die von dem Unternehmen mit der Durchführung des Verfahrens betrauten Personen müssen Gewähr für unparteiisches Handeln bieten, insbesondere müssen sie unabhängig und an Weisungen nicht gebunden sein. Sie sind zur Verschwiegenheit verpflichtet. Das Unternehmen muss in geeigneter Weise klare und verständliche Informationen zur Erreichbarkeit und Zuständigkeit und zur Durchführung des Beschwerdeverfahrens öffentlich zugänglich machen. Das Beschwerdeverfahren muss für potenzielle Beteiligte zugänglich sein, die Vertraulichkeit der Identität wahren und wirksamen Schutz vor Benachteiligung oder Bestrafung aufgrund einer Beschwerde gewährleisten.

Para. 3 is why the task usually sits badly in procurement or with the plant management of the site concerned: someone bound by instructions towards the supplier offers no guarantee of impartial conduct. Para. 4 makes publication a duty rather than good practice, and it requires accessibility for potential participants, meaning people in the supply chain and not only your own workforce.

Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG

Das Unternehmen muss das Beschwerdeverfahren nach § 8 so einrichten, dass es Personen auch ermöglicht, auf menschenrechtliche oder umweltbezogene Risiken sowie auf Verletzungen menschenrechtsbezogener oder umweltbezogener Pflichten hinzuweisen, die durch das wirtschaftliche Handeln eines mittelbaren Zulieferers entstanden sind.

One procedure, not two. The Act does not ask for a second channel for indirect suppliers; it asks that the same channel be open to reports about their conduct as well. Restricting access to direct suppliers does not satisfy Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG.

Section 24 Para. 1 no. 8 and Para. 2 LkSG

Ordnungswidrig handelt, wer vorsätzlich oder fahrlässig entgegen § 8 Absatz 1 Satz 1, auch in Verbindung mit § 9 Absatz 1, nicht dafür sorgt, dass ein Beschwerdeverfahren eingerichtet ist. Die Ordnungswidrigkeit kann geahndet werden in den Fällen des Absatzes 1 Nummer 3, 7 Buchstabe b und Nummer 8 mit einer Geldbuße bis zu achthunderttausend Euro.

A missing complaints procedure is the case in Section 24 Para. 1 no. 8 LkSG and carries a fine of up to eight hundred thousand euros under Section 24 Para. 2 sentence 1 no. 1 lit. a. The two per cent of average annual turnover routinely quoted as the sanction under the Act belongs elsewhere: Section 24 Para. 3 LkSG provides it only for the cases in Para. 1 no. 6 and no. 7 lit. a, that is, omitted remedial measures and the missing remediation concept, and only above an average annual turnover of more than 400 million euros. It does not apply to the complaints procedure.

Wording retrieved on 8 September 2026 from gesetze-im-internet.de. The CSDDD, the EU directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, is subject to an ongoing transposition and amendment process; until the German transposition appears in the Federal Law Gazette, this page states the LkSG as it currently stands and makes no claim about what will change.

How the price is built

The price has four components, quoted separately. A grievance procedure for a supply chain is otherwise compared against a reporting channel for a company's own workforce, and the two are cut differently.

• The number of companies the procedure is run for, and whether a parent company is included under Section 1 Para. 3 LkSG.
• The languages and access routes in which the procedure must be accessible to potential participants.
• The structure of the supply chain and whether reports about indirect suppliers under Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG are expected in volume.
• The expected number of reports and the number of cases included in the retainer.
• Whether the procedure should also carry the routes under Section 13 AGG and Section 12 HinSchG.

You receive a fixed figure per component once companies, languages and scope are settled. The platform costs 49 € per officer role per month and is shown separately in the mandate.

Common questions

Can the complaints procedure under the LkSG be outsourced?

Yes, and unlike some neighbouring duties it says so expressly. Section 8 Para. 1 sentence 6 LkSG reads: Die Unternehmen können sich stattdessen an einem entsprechenden externen Beschwerdeverfahren beteiligen, sofern es die nachfolgenden Kriterien erfüllt. The conditional clause is the substance. Participation relieves you only in so far as the external procedure actually meets the criteria of Paras. 2 to 4: rules of procedure in text form that are publicly accessible, entrusted people who are independent, not bound by instructions and under a duty of confidentiality, publicly accessible information on reachability, responsibility and conduct of the procedure, accessibility for potential participants, confidentiality of identity and effective protection against disadvantage or punishment. A company that takes part checks those criteria and records the check. The due diligence obligation itself stays with the company under Section 3 Para. 1 no. 7 LkSG.

Does the HinSchG reporting office cover the LkSG as well?

No. The scopes and the addressees differ. The internal reporting office under Section 12 Para. 1 sentence 1 HinSchG takes reports of breaches within the material scope of the HinSchG and is directed, under Section 16 Para. 1 sentence 1 HinSchG, at employees and temporary agency workers made available to the employer. The complaints procedure under Section 8 Para. 1 sentence 2 LkSG allows people to report human rights and environmental risks and breaches of the related duties arising from economic activity in the company's own business area or at a direct supplier, and Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG extends the same access to the conduct of indirect suppliers. Those are typically people working at or affected by a supplier, not your employees. In practice both routes can sit behind one intake, as long as the triage, the deadlines and the evidence stay separate.

Who may run the procedure, and who may not?

Section 8 Para. 3 sentence 1 LkSG requires the entrusted people to offer a guarantee of impartial conduct and, in particular, to be independent and not bound by instructions; sentence 2 places them under a duty of confidentiality. The Act names no job title and no certificate, but a quality. That is where assigning the task to procurement, or to the plant management of the site concerned, usually fails, because both are bound by instructions towards the supplier or towards their own result. An external appointment solves this structurally, because the entrusted people sit neither in the sourcing organisation nor in the reporting line of the area concerned. The internal responsibility for monitoring the risk management under Section 4 Para. 3 LkSG is untouched by this and stays in the company.

Must the procedure be open to indirect suppliers?

Yes, and it must be the same procedure. Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG requires the complaints procedure under Section 8 to be set up so that it also allows people to report risks and breaches arising from the economic activity of an indirect supplier. No second channel has to be built; the access of the existing channel simply may not be restricted to direct suppliers. In practice this means the publication required by Section 8 Para. 4 sentence 1 LkSG has to reach beyond the first supplier tier, and the choice of languages has to follow the sourcing markets rather than the group language.

What does a missing complaints procedure cost?

A company that, contrary to Section 8 Para. 1 sentence 1 LkSG, also in conjunction with Section 9 Para. 1 LkSG, fails to ensure that a complaints procedure is in place commits an administrative offence under Section 24 Para. 1 no. 8 LkSG. The fine is up to eight hundred thousand euros under Section 24 Para. 2 sentence 1 no. 1 lit. a. The two per cent of average annual turnover often cited as the sanction under the Supply Chain Act does not belong here: Section 24 Para. 3 LkSG provides it only for the cases in Para. 1 no. 6 and no. 7 lit. a, that is, omitted remedial measures and the missing remediation concept, and only where average annual turnover exceeds 400 million euros. Anyone comparing quotes or risk assessments should watch that allocation.

What does the procedure cost at CIVAC?

The price has four components: the one-off set-up, an ongoing retainer for the entrusted people and their deputies, case handling per report, and the optional languages and access routes. The figure depends on the number of companies the procedure is run for, the languages and access routes, the structure of the supply chain and the expected number of reports. Anyone comparing offers should ask three questions. Are availability in the languages of the sourcing markets and access routes for people without internet access included, or a separate line item? Is the discussion with the person who raised the complaint, required by Section 8 Para. 1 sentence 4 LkSG, charged per case? And does the provider supply the input to the report that Section 10 Para. 2 sentence 2 no. 2 LkSG requires? You receive a fixed figure per component once scope and languages are settled. The platform costs 49 € per officer role per month and is shown separately.

From what company size does the duty apply?

Section 1 Para. 1 sentence 1 LkSG covers companies, whatever their legal form, whose head office, principal place of business, administrative seat or statutory seat is in Germany and which normally employ at least 3,000 employees in Germany; sentence 3 of the same paragraph lowers that threshold to 1,000 employees in each case from 1 January 2024. Under Section 1 Para. 1 sentence 2 LkSG the Act applies equally to companies with a branch office under Section 13d of the German Commercial Code in Germany from the same headcount. Two attributions are frequently overlooked: Section 1 Para. 2 LkSG counts temporary agency workers towards the hirer where the assignment exceeds six months, and Section 1 Para. 3 LkSG attributes the employees in Germany of all group companies to the parent within affiliated undertakings as defined in Section 15 of the German Stock Corporation Act. Employees posted abroad are included.