Compliance

Compliance is an integral component of corporate and management culture throughout the United Internet Group. For United Internet AG, compliance means ensuring its activities comply with all relevant laws for its business, as well as with its own principles and regulations.

This includes open and fair communication with our employees, customers, business partners, shareholders, and the public. As an internet service provider with several million customers and a large number of business partners, United Internet’s legally and ethically compliant behavior is vital for retaining the trust of its customers and business associates.

To ensure conduct in line with our corporate culture, the Management Board has created a binding framework for the Company’s ethical principles and values. Moreover, it has defined values and management guidelines, and compiled the most important rules of behavior in a Code of Conduct. This “culture of cooperation” provides guidance for employees in their everyday work and creates a secure framework for making the correct decisions. The framework applies equally to the Management Board, directors, managers, and all employees.

The Management Board has established a Compliance Organization to ensure adherence to the legal and internal regulations.

The Compliance Organization is part of an holistic risk management system which not only includes the “GRC” functions Corporate Governance, Risk Management & Compliance, but also the Corporate Audit and Legal Department. These risk-mitigating functions are headed by the Group General Counsel, who reports directly to the CFO of United Internet AG.

The Compliance Organization is responsible for the creation of suitable structures and processes to support the implementation of compliance throughout the Company and to align measures with the respective risks. The compliance processes include release procedures in the field of corruption prevention and trustworthy reporting paths that give employees the possibility to highlight possible misconduct or legal violations within the Company.

The compliance organization is present and anchored in the business units via functional and local Compliance Managers (FCMs and LCMs). In addition to their normal functions, the FCMs and LCMs support the area of compliance.

The overarching element of the compliance system remains the responsibility of all managers for compliance. This includes acting as a role model, as enshrined in the Company’s management guidelines, and goes beyond this: all managers of the Company must set an example with regard to compliance and ensure that decisions and actions in their area of responsibility are always in line with the relevant legal provisions and the Company’s own values and rules.