Ethical and Conformity Charter
FICIME and its affiliated organizations commit to respect and uphold the following Ethical and Conformity Charter during their meetings.
FICIME and its affiliated organizations will commit their best efforts to avoid exchanges, activities, communications or approaches, which could, on behalf of it or any of its member / participant, violate competition laws.
Any person participating to any meeting will not and under no circumstance communicate or exchange information about strategy, sales or any other information which would limit the freedom of competition pursuant to article L 420-1 and following of the French Commercial Code and articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the functionning of the European Union (TFEU).
This Charter applies to official meetings as well as informal discussions being held before, during or after such meetings.
The Ethical and Conformity Charter of meetings for members of the organization affiliated to FICIME is displayed and available in every meeting room of FICIME. Indeed, this charter is part of a constant approach of FICIME, already well established, to remind its members on a regular basis about the respect of these rules.
To Do
The organizers of meetings, whose participants are mainly members of organizations affiliated to FICIME, commit to ensure the respect of the following elements:
ORGANISATION & CONTROL OF THE MEETING
It is compulsory during preparation and meetings to:
- ensure the presence of an employee of FICIME for every meeting
- consult the legal department of FICIME for any question which may concern competition law related issues
- limit discussions to the agenda’s items
- remind the participants the content of the Charter and to indicate where it is displayed in the meeting room.
DOCUMENTS OF THE MEETING
The agenda has to be defined and sent before the meeting takes place.
The agendas and meeting reports must:
- Faithfully represent the discussed topics
- Be verified by the legal department of FICIME if the organizer deems it useful. No documents provided during the meeting should include any information potentially cause sanctions pursuant to applicable Competition Laws. If there is any doubt, documents need to be submitted for legal advice service before circulating them.
VIGILANCE
The organizer in charge of the meeting or any participant should go against any discussion or activity of a group which could be infringing to the Charter. In case of difficulty, the organizer or any participant should ask for interruption of the meeting in order to solicit a legal advice and as the case may occur, to withdraw from such discussions or activities and leave the meeting if it keeps on going and to place on record this situation in the report.
What Not To Do
It is strictly forbidden, directly or indirectly, to discuss or exchange information which in violation of applicable competition laws and especially to exchange information regarding:
EXISTING OR FUTURE PRICES, PRICE LISTS
The communication of information such as existing price lists, price differences, discounts or current prices is strictly forbidden between competitors.
Under no circumstances can a professional organization provide professional price lists to its members, even if such price lists are only indicative.
The communication of information about current or future prices or planned volumes are considered as restrictive practices and is therefore strictly forbidden.
PRODUCTION
The communication of information regarding designs, production, distribution, capacity, stocks, sales, product marketing as well as trading or catchment areas and customers is strictly forbidden between competitors.
TRANSPORT
The communication of individual conditions such as prices, charters, pricing zones etc. is forbidden.
MARKET PROCEDURES
The communication of tender information such as specific contracts, company procedures or any other information to answer tender bids is forbidden.
The communication of information concerning suppliers, existing customers or prospects which could lead them to be excluded from markets or potentially influencing the relation between parties is forbidden. The preparation of a so-called black list or customer/supplier boycott is forbidden.
