Atos - Registration Document 2016

F Risks analysis [G4-14]

F.3

Compliance and reputation risk

Compliance and reputation risk

F.3

Regulatory risks

F.3.1

legal, administrative or regulatory authorizations. The activities of the Group are in general not subject to specific However, activities related to payments in Europe have been subject since 2011 to the European Payments Institution

concerned. requirements of this regulation are met by the entities regulation. A dedicated follow-up is performed to ensure that the

Compliance risks

F.3.2

compliance risks. Atos has addressed these areas by way of an reinforced, resulting in a potentially greater exposure to In the last few years, Atos’ international presence has been activities and jurisdictional exposure, such as bribery, to take into account the compliance risks specific to new enhancement and refinement of its compliance program in order sanctions, export control & customs (ECC) regulations. competition, market abuse, money laundering, international exposed to Personal Data Protection regulations, which protect As an employer and as a service provider, Atos is regularly world. Atos has therefore deployed a strong and coordinated the identity, privacy and liberties of individuals in the digital

data protection organization at all levels of its organization to provide training, support and expertise to the operations. corporate solutions in all Atos Business Units and to prevent the enable a systematic integration of compliance risks in predefined A wide array of internal policies have been implemented to mandatory Atos Rainbow business review for all commercial respect to key compliance risks has been reinforced in the Additionally, since 2014, a system of checks and approvals with unapproved use of Atos goods and services by third parties. transactions. Compliance initiatives are further described in section D.4.1.1. Compliance. property protection or the inability to obtain third party resources and may not prove successful. The loss of intellectual know-how, which is expensive, could cause a diversion of to freely operate. intellectual property could harm the Group’s business and ability the Group are subject to an increase in the number of risks Due to their complexity, the technology domains addressed by of specific governance described in the “Atos IP policy” and is them efficiently, the Group develops its own strategy by means they may have. In order to tackle these risks and to manage related to intellectual property but also in the financial impact implementation of appropriate policies and processes, and a providing dedicated resources which are entrusted with the strong worldwide patent applications filings campaign. This ramifies deeply into operations by means of an Intellectual management representatives and internal stakeholders and Committee which convenes on a quarterly basis and gathers top governance is headed by an intellectual property Steering Development at Divisions or local level. Property Managers network active within Research &

Intellectual property protection

F.3.3

F

license agreement requests or license requirements under open and the Group may be subject to infringement claims, cross The Group’s intellectual property may be challenged or infringed source. copyright, trademark, patent, domain name and trade secret The Group relies on a combination of contractual rights and property. invalidate, circumvent, infringe or misappropriate its intellectual co-owned intangible assets. Third parties may challenge, laws to establish and protect its proprietary technology and technology, duplicate its services or design around its intellectual others, including its competitors, may develop similar sufficient to permit to conduct its business independently, While the Group strives to ensure that its intellectual property is obtain licenses from these third parties (including in the context intellectual property rights against such parties or may have to property. In such cases the Group could not assert its enforceability of its intellectual property rights, trade secrets and may have to litigate to enforce or determine the scope and also grant a license under its intellectual property). The Group of cross license agreements, pursuant to which the Group would

Atos | Document de Référence 2016

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