OECD Anti-Bribery Convention
Definition
The 1997 OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, requiring its 44 signatories to criminalise active bribery of foreign public officials and monitored through peer review by the OECD Working Group on Bribery.
- Adopted
- 1997
- Full name
- Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions
- Signatories
- 44 countries
- Monitoring
- Peer review by the OECD Working Group on Bribery
Common questions
How does the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention differ in scope from the US FCPA?+
The Convention is a multilateral treaty requiring each signatory to enact its own domestic legislation criminalising foreign bribery, so it sets a common international standard, while the FCPA is one country's implementing law; other signatories have their own separate statutes, such as the UK Bribery Act, that were enacted to meet the Convention's requirements.
What does the OECD Working Group on Bribery's peer review process actually check?+
The peer review evaluates each signatory country's legal framework and enforcement record against the Convention's requirements, in phases that progress from reviewing the legislation on paper to assessing actual enforcement outcomes, and publishes country reports that can highlight gaps or weak enforcement.
Does the Convention criminalise the foreign official who accepts the bribe as well as the company that pays it?+
No, the Convention specifically targets the supply side, requiring signatories to criminalise their own nationals and companies for bribing foreign public officials; prosecuting the officials who receive bribes remains a matter for that official's own domestic law, not the Convention itself.
Related terms
- Adequate Procedures
- The defence to the Section 7 corporate offence under the UK Bribery Act. A commercial organisation must show it had in place...
- Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA)
- An agreement between a prosecutor and a company in which criminal charges are filed but prosecution is deferred in exchange for cooperation,...
- Facilitation Payment
- A small payment to a government official to expedite a routine official action. The FCPA exempts such payments; the UK Bribery Act...
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
- A US federal statute that prohibits US-listed companies, their officers, and agents from bribing foreign government officials. Applies extraterritorially, meaning the conduct...
- UK Bribery Act 2010
- A UK statute that criminalises both public and private sector bribery, covers any person (not only government officials), and creates a strict-liability...