A wrong word at the wrong time, a bouquet of flowers that is too expensive, or a code of ethics from the other side of the world that was unfortunately overlooked: compliance issues always become apparent when it is already too late. To prevent them from happening in the first place, professional compliance translations are an essential part of the inventory of effective compliance management tools, especially in an international context. This inventory must also be continuously maintained.
Compliance – it is now an everyday word used in meetings, internal emails, and conversations in almost every large organization. Everybody uses it, but the full scope of its meaning is rarely considered. In reality, compliance can mean many different things. It can mean “adherence”, but also “attention”, or even the opposite, “flexibility” or “submissiveness”.
In any case, it is advisable to pay submissive attention to compliance issues in order to adhere to them – and to do so without flexibility.
Tweaking the wording
As with almost everything in language, understanding the word “compliance” correctly always depends on the situation and context. Today, we will focus on the meaning that is best interpreted as “adherence” to certain rules. In the past, companies shuddered at the prospect of implementing the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. The GDPR has certainly kept legal experts and data protection officers in companies busy for years.
Now there are other issues to worry about. In the future, for example, the Green Claims Directive targeting potentially misleading sustainability claims will become a sticking point and will presumably encourage contact between marketing departments and corporate legal advisors. To avoid getting into legal hot water, experts in marketing departments are already fine-tuning the correct wording – and will continue to do so more intensively in the future. What’s more, compliance experts are already grappling with the next issues: the use of AI and its possible copyright consequences, for example, or the new Whistleblower Protection Act.
Compliance – something that was perhaps not pursued with the utmost rigor everywhere in the past – has now seeped into everyday business life. And it doesn’t just relate to wars, sustainability, or data protection. Does the bouquet of flowers for the civil servant speaker at a conference constitute a bribe? Was the lunch with the business partner from the public sector a little too expensive?
The situation becomes even more complicated in an international context: The translations of the directives themselves must also meet compliance standards. Preferably, they should meet compliance standards that apply in the target market as well as in the company’s home country. That is because the wording used in the compliance environment in particular calls for a high degree of linguistic sensitivity, nurtured by knowledge of local peculiarities. How is whistleblower protection structured in the USA? And do you actually know, for example, exactly what the regulations for the labeling of packaging in France specify right now?
Specifications can and must always be updated. The global political upheavals of the last few years show this quite accurately. This also means that translators are constantly faced with challenges.
Compliance translations in summary
So, we now know that what passed as compliant yesterday may be a legal risk and raise liability issues tomorrow. Therefore, it makes sense to synchronize the work of legal departments and translators and to facilitate an ongoing dialog between them. This type of communication loop can save companies from expensive litigation costs in the event of a problem.
However, translators also carry a high level of responsibility within the company for ensuring the acceptance of compliance regulations. Whether ethical codes of conduct become an integral part of the corporate culture or are merely regarded by management as an instrument of repression wielded by the legal department is very much to do with language. Incidentally, compliance is not necessarily a popular concept in many companies. As one study discovered, compliance is not particularly conducive to building corporate culture. This is where translators have an opportunity to use their linguistic skills to make compliance issues more attractive, at least within the company.
Mastering the language is not the same at mastering the subject matter
The written or spoken word can quickly mutate into a legal debacle, regardless of whether you are translating a sensitive document containing personal data, advertising copy relating to sustainability, or a meeting where contracts are being negotiated. This applies all the more in the complex international context.
When it comes to compliance matters, experienced translators know that legally watertight communication is all-important. Qualified professional translators are not only masters of language but are also subject matter experts.
Professional translators will prevent your organization from slipping up on the international stage. In cooperation with corporate compliance management, they make sure you won’t be hearing from lawyers in Ireland, Iceland, or Italy. Their expertise and skills will keep you on the right side of the law.
