Tuesday, 14 July 2026
Amendments to the Czech Act on Criminal Liability of Legal Persons have expanded the factors courts must consider when sentencing companies and other legal entities.
The changes, introduced by Act No. 270/2025 Coll., took effect on 1 January 2026. Courts must still consider the nature and seriousness of an offence, but the amended legislation adds several factors relating to the organisation itself.
These include its number of employees, business activities and whether it performs a strategic or difficult-to-replace role in the national economy, defence or security. Courts must also consider whether the organisation had effective compliance measures in place and what action it took after the offence to reduce the risk of further misconduct.
The amendment also changes the assessment of financial penalties. The daily rate remains between CZK 1,000 and CZK 2 million.
When setting the rate, courts must now consider not only the organisation’s financial circumstances but also its net turnover for the most recently completed accounting period, where that information can be established. The change is intended to make penalties more closely reflect an offender’s financial position.
The revised sentencing rules give courts an explicit basis for considering the quality and effectiveness of a company’s compliance arrangements. A documented programme that operates in practice may therefore affect the assessment of a sentence, although its impact will depend on the circumstances of each case.
Measures taken after misconduct is discovered may also be relevant. These can include investigating the conduct, addressing control failures and introducing changes intended to prevent a recurrence.
More than six months after the amendment entered into force, companies may need to assess whether their compliance policies, internal controls and records would provide sufficient evidence of how their systems operate. The reform makes both preventive measures and the response to identified misconduct relevant considerations in corporate criminal sentencing.
Source: CMS
