Ethics and compliance

The Group’s policy is to maintain, wherever it operates, healthy and lasting relationships with its employees, customers, suppliers, partners and communities. This approach is organised with a specific governance, demonstrated at the highest level of the organisation, a policy, efforts to promote and raise awareness of ethics and integrity issues, and using tools that formalise its commitments. The supervision of ethical, compliance, and vigilance topics is ensured by various bodies :

• The Executive Committee, with the support of the group's Ethics Committee, supervises all ethical matters with three main missions: advising and making recommendations on the group's ethical culture, collecting reports, and monitoring their processing..
• The Legal Compliance Department creates and manages compliance programs and ethical policies at the group level. It identifies, evaluates, and controls compliance risks and ensures adherence to laws and regulations, while coordinating these compliance programs with all departments.
• The Compliance and Vigilance Committee, composed of departments responsible for CSR topics, meets regularly to define compliance standards, advise on preventive actions, monitor compliance programs, and lead awareness campaigns.
• The Purchasing, Sustainable Development, and Internal Control networks ensure operational monitoring and controls to deploy action plans and ensure their effectiveness.

Hermès' values and commitments are formalized in various documents : 

• The group's ethical charter since 2009
• The business conduct code since 2012
• The anti-corruption code since 2018
• The group's vigilance plan

These charters and codes are aligned with fundamental principles such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the rules of the ILO, the OECD, and the United Nations Global Compact on sustainable development.

Hermès requires its suppliers to adhere to an ethical, social, and environmental policy by signing the Supplier Code of Conduct.

Hermès continues to improve its corruption prevention plan, in accordance with the requirements of the French law of 9 December 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernisation of economic life in France.

Furthermore, the Group conducts global legal monitoring of legislative changes on the fight against corruption and complies with current legislative and regulatory requirements both in France and in other countries in which it operates.

The fight against corruption in all its forms permeates all the Group’s policies and procedures. Governance of anti‑corruption is supported by the legal compliance department and includes the Compliance and Vigilance Committee and the Ethics Committee with a local relay thanks to the network of Group compliance liaison officers.

The group's policy on preventing and combating corruption is formalized through its Anti-Corruption Code of Conduct, which was deployed in 2018 based on the results of the group's corruption risk mapping. This code of conduct was approved by the group's governing bodies and communicated to all entities and structures within the group. It has been distributed to and applies to all group employees.

It outlines rules regarding gifts and invitations, relationships with third parties and public officials, prohibition of facilitation payments, management of conflicts of interest, sponsorship and donations, lobbying,etc