The Ethics Offices are a confidential contact center for all Freudenberg employees and third parties (i.e. individuals outside the Freudenberg Group, such as suppliers or customers) who would like to report an actual or imminent violation of the law or of our Business or Guiding Principles. The purpose of the Ethics Offices is to ensure that the Freudenberg Group conducts its business in compliance with the laws and its principles, thereby protecting the Freudenberg Group from liability risks and reputational damage and its managers and employees from personal liability. Detection and correction of misconduct help the Freudenberg Group in implementing essential principles of good corporate governance and support the Freudenberg Group in fulfilling its corporate human rights responsibility along global supply chains at the same time.
Members of a Freudenberg Group company, as well as third parties, may report any company-related violation of laws or breaches of our Business Principles, our Code of Conduct or any other internal or external guidelines and local practices consistent with the aforementioned rules. Such violations include bribery and corruption or non-compliance with competition, environmental protection, safety or labor laws. Information providers may also report human rights and environment-related risks and violations pursuant to the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains and other similar laws that have arisen as a result of the economic actions of Freudenberg in its own business area or the actions of a direct or indirect supplier of Freudenberg.
Freudenberg Group has one central Ethics Office in Europe (Corporate Ethics Office) and three regional Ethics Offices (Regional Ethics Offices Americas, India and Asia).
The Regional Ethics Offices can be reached as follows:
In principle, reports should be submitted to the Ethics Office closest to you. Ultimately, however, it is up to you to decide which Ethics Office to contact.
You may submit the report either by stating your name or anonymously. There is no mandatory form for the provision of information. The respective Ethics Office will review the submitted information and, if it alleges a violation of the law or any of our principles, will conduct an investigation and determine what steps are required to ensure compliance.
The information can be provided in any regional or local language. Most suitable would be English or the language corresponding to the location of the respective Ethics Office which is, of course, fully prepared to follow up on information communicated in any other language and will obtain – if necessary – a confidential, professional translation.
The Freudenberg Group ensures that no adverse measures are taken against individuals who in good faith report violations, provide assistance in reporting or cooperate in the investigation of the violation and that they are protected against retaliation.
The Ethics Offices treat information and the identity of the information provider as strictly confidential to the extent permitted by law. The current data protection regulations are complied with. Our Privacy Statement can be found under Important documents.