Dr. Niclas Müller, President and Chief Executive Officer of VDM Metals Group, is responsible for the area of compliance. He is supported by the Head of Compliance/Chief Compliance Officer, Ms. Nicole Teresiak, and the Compliance department. Compliance officers have been appointed at all production sites and VDM companies abroad. They act as local points of contact and report to the Head of Compliance/Chief Compliance Officer. The support of the local compliance officers is particularly important for ensuring that compliance risks are identified at an early stage and that effective preventive countermeasures can be developed and implemented. The latter, in turn, is a prerequisite for the continuous development of our compliance program and the maintenance of our compliance culture. 

The Compliance department's main areas of work are:

An initial relevance analysis was carried out to identify the compliance obligations relevant to VDM Metals. This was used to determine the following scope of application of the CMS: 

• Combating corruption
• Prevention of criminal acts to the detriment of third parties or the company
• Compliance with
  • anti-money laundering law
  • anti-trust law
  • competition law
  • data protection law
  • information security law
• Compliance with corporate social responsibility
• Compliance with self-imposed external standards (UN Global Compact, RMI, ILO, Transparency International corporate member voluntary commitment, Charter of Diversity)
• Compliance with contractual obligations/business partner guidelines

VDM Metals offers employees, business partners and third parties several options for reporting violations of internal policies or legal regulations in business transactions:

• Web-based, multilingual whistleblower system that can be accessed 24/7 and can also be used anonymously via https://acerinoxgroup.integrityline.app/
• E-mail to the VDM Compliance Department at compliance@vdm-metals.com or compliance.vdm@vdm-metals.com or, for information security issues, at isecurity.vdm@vdm-metals.com
• Use of the internal compliance hotline by dialing -7777 (from outside the company: +49 2392 55 7777)
• Personally notifying the Head of Compliance/Chief Compliance Officer, the compliance officers, the managers or the employees in supervisory roles 

Information and complaints can also be sent by (internal) mail to the internal compliance department:

VDM Metals Holding GmbH

Compliance

Plettenberger Str. 2

58791 Werdohl

Criminal acts can cause significant damage to the company. Therefore, we want to encourage those who have knowledge of possible criminal acts or other irregularities to contact us.

VDM Metals does not tolerate violations of the law or breaches of its internal policies and principles. All VDM Metals companies will respond appropriately to compliance cases that are identified during an investigation. In doing so, sanctions under labor law and the assertion of claims for damages against the employees involved are to be examined. These can, for example, take the form of written warnings, dismissals or the reduction or cancellation of any bonus payments (malus system).

Every report will be investigated, regardless of the reporting channel. If necessary, VDM Metals will implement compliance measures resulting from the reports, such as adjustments to the training program or the policies.

VDM Metals takes the protection of personal data seriously.

Our goal is to ensure the fundamental right of informational self-determination for each individual. Everyone should be able to decide for themselves when and to whom they make which of their data available and for what purpose.

In the following, you will find information about the processing of personal data in connection with your visit to the VDM Metals website and a summary of your rights under the European General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter “GDPR”). You will also find information about the cookies we use.

We ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability.

Information security is the protection of information (of all types and forms of storage) and the systems used to process and store it (hardware, software, brains) from threats to confidentiality, integrity and availability.

The goal of information security at VDM Metals is to maintain business operations and to minimize the impact of security incidents on business operations by preventing their occurrence. The confidentiality and integrity of information are maintained. The availability of information is ensured.

The management of VDM Metals Group has defined the principles of information security in the Information Security Policy. The most important principles of this policy are summarized in the document Core Statements of the Information Security Policy.

Only those who know which information requires special protection can protect it appropriately. This is why regular training on information security is provided.