Our aim is to go above and beyond mere compliance with laws and regulations. We want to bring integrity — which is essential to our corporate culture — to life. Our compliance culture is more than just a set of rules. It is an expression of our values and the responsibility we bear for each other and for society.
We apply the highest ethical standards in everything we do and everywhere we operate. Our aim is to go beyond mere compliance with laws and regulations. We want to bring integrity - which is essential to our corporate culture - to life, because misconduct can quickly result in significant harm, both to our stakeholders and to Uniper itself. It is important that violations of applicable law and company policies are systematically prevented and that we react quickly if a potential violation has occurred despite our controls and measures. This is the only way we can credibly demonstrate that we manage our company responsibly and strive to create long-term value.
The Uniper compliance culture
We define compliance risks as the possibility of significant legal risks, high fines and considerable reputational damage. These can result from misconduct or breaches of the law, either by our employees or by third parties acting on our behalf. Our Group-wide compliance management system (CMS) reduces these risks by setting uniform standards for dealing with these risks. We carry out regular compliance risk analyses (CRAs) within the CMS framework and, if necessary, define measures for tailored risk management.
Our approach
- Support effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels
- Audit 100% of Uniper's material contractual partners (ESG due diligence)
- Provide internal as well as external whistleblower channels for employees to report discriminatory behavior or other violations
- Conduct regular training and awareness-raising activities so that all employees are aware of applicable laws and internal policies and can apply them in their daily work
- Regular reporting in the area of tax transparency
- Adherence to ESG criteria (environmental, social, governance) and the promotion of a culture of integrity and compliance
Management of ESG risks
We systematically assess environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks that could arise from our business activities. One way of doing this is to review our business partners for ESG risks. The aim is to avoid doing business with contractual partners that have or contribute to serious negative impacts on ESG aspects, including human rights. For our ESG risk management, we use an ESG due diligence software solution that enables risk and supplier-oriented management. This solution provides a detailed overview of direct and, if necessary, indirect suppliers and adequately records their specific human rights and environmental risks.
Zero tolerance for corruption and bribery
We maintain business relationships with contractual partners all over the world, including in countries with an increased risk of corruption. Our know-your-counterparty corporate policy helps us to identify, assess and report on the most important compliance risks
Educating our employees
We regularly train employees on policies and systems to prevent corruption. In 2025, we updated the eLearning module introduced in 2021, which covers the principles of the Uniper Code of Conduct, for the second time.
We also offer training for our employees on the topic of human rights. In 2023, an online training course entitled "Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence" was offered for business units that face human rights risks due to their commercial activities with suppliers. In 2024, participation in the updated training was made mandatory for all employees in order to familiarize them with the topic of corporate human rights due diligence and the associated internal processes.
Data protection
The systematic protection and secure handling of employee and customer data is important to us. This is essential in order to avoid fines, prevent damage to our company's reputation and strengthen the trust of our stakeholders.
To protect our systems and data from unauthorized access, we rely on strong identity-based security management. The so-called “zero trust” approach supports our cloud-based applications and improves collaboration with business partners. We are investing in information security and data protection and are constantly improving our security measures due to an increasing number of cyber threats. In particular, we use the latest cloud technology to meet the increased availability and IT security requirements for the home office environment. We also attach great importance to the secure handling of personal data in order to avoid breaches of relevant data protection regulations. Processes and relevant collection of personal data are documented in a data protection management system based on a “best practice” approach. In addition, technical and organizational measures have been implemented and their appropriateness from a data protection perspective has been reviewed in collaboration with the information security team in order to prevent misuse of personal data or unauthorized access from outside the company.
Contact
Oliver Roeder
