Reporting on human rights due diligence obligations

The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) has applied to all companies in Germany with more than 3,000 employees, regardless of industry, since January 2023. This also obliges OTTO to prevent or at least minimise human rights and environmental violations along its supply chains and in its own business operations.

The law imposes due diligence obligations on companies, such as carrying out a risk analysis, publishing a policy statement on human rights and implementing preventive and remedial measures.

In addition, companies must set up inclusive complaints procedures that allow both internal and external parties to submit information. At OTTO, we use the Otto Group's SpeakUp whistleblowing system, which enables whistleblowers to submit complaints securely, digitally and anonymously. The rules of procedure for our complaints procedures can be found at the end of this article.

The final component of the LkSG is documentation and reporting. At the end of June - four months after the end of our financial year - we will always fulfil our reporting obligation here and make our report publicly available free of charge for a period of at least seven years