The UK Bribery Act of 2010 established a strict legal framework that goes beyond the FCPA in several key areas. Compliance officers operating globally must align their anti-corruption programs with these higher standards.
Key Innovations of the UK Bribery Act
  • Prohibiting Commercial Bribery: While the FCPA focuses strictly on bribing public officials, the UK Bribery Act bans bribery in both the public and private sectors. Bribing a private corporate purchasing agent carries the same criminal penalties as bribing a government minister.
  • Banning Facilitation Payments: The FCPA provides a narrow exception for small “facilitating or expediting payments” designed to speed up routine government actions (such as processing visa paperwork or hooking up utilities). The UK Bribery Act completely prohibits these payments, treating them as illegal bribes.

Section 7: The Strict Liability Corporate Offense
The Act introduced a corporate offense: Section 7: Failure of Commercial Organizations to Prevent Bribery.
[Employee Bribes Third Party] ---> Strict Corporate Offense Under Section 7
                                                 |
                     +---------------------------+---------------------------+

                     |                                                       |
                     v                                                       v
        [Prosecution Conviction]                             [Adequate Procedures Defense]
        - Unlimited fine exposures                           - Must prove 6 principles work
        - Corporate debarment risks                          - Complete statutory defense

Under Section 7, if an employee or third-party agent pays a bribe to secure a business advantage for a corporation, the company is automatically liable for a criminal offense. The corporation faces unlimited fines and debarment from public contracts unless it can prove it had Adequate Procedures in place to prevent the bribery.
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