You can use our whistleblowing system to report breaches of the law or of internal policies. You can file reports in a large number of categories, including white-collar crime, discrimination/harassment, and breaches of human rights and environmental protection requirements. The landing page for our whistleblowing system lists the full range of available reporting categories.
In the European Union and some other countries, you can also submit reports by phone using a toll-free phone number. Further information is available on the landing page for our whistleblowing system.
The reports are handled by employees from Corporate Compliance Management or Corporate Auditing, or by experts from other headquarters functions. All these staff act impartially and are bound to secrecy.
All incoming reports are reviewed and processed by trained, independent employees at Beiersdorf’s headquarters. If you have set up a postbox, you will be given prompt confirmation that we have received your report. In some cases the case manager may also contact you with further questions about the issue.
We follow up on all reports we receive. Keeping the information you provide confidential is very important to us, which is why we involve as few people as possible in the investigation.
Generally, people accused of wrongdoing are given the chance to present their side of the situation described in your report. In some cases, this means we may have to disclose your name (this is often necessary with accusations of harassment, for example). If you reveal your name in your report, please tell us if you do not want the person you have accused to know it.
We may have to pass on the information you have reported to public bodies in cases in which this is required.
If our investigation confirms that a compliance breach has occurred, we will take appropriate measures.
If you have set up a protected postbox in our whistleblowing system, we will provide feedback on the outcome of our investigation after it has been completed. We ask for your understanding that we cannot share any details, since we also have to protect the privacy rights of the people accused. This may lead to restrictions on how many details we can provide you with about the outcome of the investigation.
You can submit reports anonymously if you wish to. Your anonymity will be protected at a technical level by the BKMS® Incident Reporting system as long as you yourself do not submit any data which can be traced back to you. If you want to remain anonymous, we recommend that you set up a secure postbox. This will allow the case manager to contact you if they have any questions and to provide you with feedback.
Exceptions to this principle may apply in some countries and for some categories of complaints. Further information is available on the landing page for our whistleblowing system platform once you have selected the country in which you are located.
To start with, we only disclose your identity to the minimum number of people needed for the investigation. Beiersdorf prohibits retaliation measures against people who report potential compliance breaches in good faith. Please use the whistleblowing system to contact us if you experience disadvantages or retaliation in connection with your report.
However, you must be prepared for consequences if you knowingly report false or misleading information.
The full description of the reporting process is available for download here.