Compliance

What does 'compliance' mean?

Compliance means that a person or organisation complies with the applicable laws and regulations of their own accord or adheres to them. 

What is the common international definition?

A commonly used international definition is: Observance of external (international and national) laws and regulations, as well as internal norms and procedures, to protect the integrity of the organisation, its management and employees with the aim of preventing and controlling risks and the possible damage resulting from these compliance and integrity risks (Bleker - van Eyk, S. and Houben, R: Handbook of Compliance & Integrity Management - Theory and Practice, Kluwer International, Deventer, 2017). 

What do customs authorities do to ensure compliance?

The above text is from the book 'Customs - Inside Anywhere, Insights Everywhere' by Frank Heijmann and John Peters, in which the authors point out that one of the dimensions of customs supervision is 'service provision', which includes the task of developing initiatives that increase the willingness of members of the public and businesses to voluntarily fulfil the obligations and formalities that apply to them. Intervention, correction and repercussion are the other dimensions.

In other words, the customs authorities:

1. Create incentives to increase voluntary compliance, e.g. less inspections, access to simplified procedures
2. Control compliance with the regulations, e.g. inspection during clearance, post-clearance audit
3. Ensure that mistakes detected are corrected
4. Use various methods to penalise infringements, e.g. fines, suspension of an authorisation. Penalties for non-compliance will vary depending on the jurisdiction. They differ even between EU Member States with some countries applying administrative and some criminal penalties.