Whistleblowing reporting system

We consider compliance with law and legislation to be a matter of course in our business action. For us, compliance with laws and regulations is an essential basic principle of economically responsible action. Therefore, rule violations have be detected at an early stage.

BioConsult SH encourages everyone inside and outside the company observing violations of rules in connection with our company or suspecting them for specific reasons to contact our whistleblower reporting system without fear of reprisals.

The company protects whistleblowers who report possible violations based on concrete indications. The confidentiality of their statements is guaranteed.

In accordance with the Whistleblower Protection Act (HinSchG), the German implementation of the so-called EU Whistleblower Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report infringements of Union law), we have set up our whistleblower reporting system.

Section 2 of the HinSchG defines the applicability of the law and includes among others violations of criminal provisions (under German legislation), administrative offences if the violated regulation serves to protect life, body or health or to protect the rights of employees or their representative bodies (e.g., occupational health and safety, minimum wage), violations of federal and state legislation adopted to implement certain European regulations as well as violations of directly applicable EU legal acts in a variety of different areas (e.g., anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations, product safety regulations, traffic safety regulations, environmental protection regulations, data protection regulations, etc.).

Whistleblowers can be persons who have obtained information about violations in connection with their professional activities and report them (this includes employees, former employees, job applicants, interns, temporary workers, self-employed persons providing services, freelancers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and their employees, shareholders and persons in management bodies).

You can reach our internal reporting office by email or telephone:

• In writing, you can submit your report by email to hinweisgeber@bioconsult-sh.de.
• You can submit your report orally using telephone number +49 (0) 48 41 77937 118. When calling this number, you will reach our answering machine, where you can leave your message.

Both reporting channels are not anonymous. Incoming messages are received and processed by two employees (“hotline officers”). The confidentiality of the whistleblower and third parties is protected (Section 8 HinSchG).

It will be very helpful for us if whistleblowers agree to be contacted so that the issue can be clarified in the best possible way. If a whistleblower discloses his or her identity but does not wish it to be shared with others within the company, this request will be complied with.

As a rule, whistleblowers are free to choose whether to contact an internal reporting office or an external reporting office of the authorities. Whistleblowers should preferably report to an internal reporting office in cases where effective internal action can be taken against the violation as long as they do not fear reprisals.

You can contact the following external reporting offices:

• Federal external reporting office at the Federal Office of Justice:

https://www.bundesjustizamt.de/DE/MeldestelledesBundes/MeldestelledesBundes_node.htmlBundeskartellamt: https://www.bundeskartellamt.de/EN/Banoncartels/Whistle-blower/whistle-blower_node.htmlFederal Financial Supervisory Authority: https://www.bafin.de/DE/DieBaFin/Hinweisgeberstelle/hinweisgeberstelle_node.html

Please see the following Data protection information for whistleblower.