CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jorge Bofill and César Ramos, Bofill Escobar Silva
• Commercial bribery legislation – sanctions an employee or agent who, in the exercise of their duties, requests or accepts an economic or other benefit for the purpose of favouring or for hav - ing favoured the contracting of one offeror over another. Whoever gives, offers or consents to give that benefit to that employee or agent for the same purpose is also sanctioned. • Unlawful negotiation – consists of taking a per - sonal interest in any negotiation, action, contract or operations by public officials, liquidators and administrators, in which they take an interest by reason of their position or functions. • Misappropriation – is a crime against property consisting of the retention of goods belonging to somebody else, when those goods were legally in their possession through a title different to owner - ship. Finally, new offences included in the catalogue are: the introduction into the sea, rivers or lakes of chemi - cal, biological or physical contaminants that cause damage to hydro-biological resources; the process - ing, transformation, commercialisation and storage of banned hydro-biological resources or products derived therefrom; the performance of extractive activities in areas of management and exploitation of deep-sea resources, without being the holder of the rights; and being in possession of, producing or stor - ing hydro-biological resources which are in a state of collapse or over-exploitation without being able to prove their legal origin. Usually, sanctions against corporations consist of a monetary fine. However, applicable penalties may include: dissolution of the legal entity and cancellation of its legal status; a temporary or permanent ban on entering into contracts with state entities; total or par - tial loss of tax benefits or an absolute ban on receiving these for a certain period, among others. 3.2 Bribery, Influence Peddling and Related Offences The Chilean Criminal Code sanctions bribery of domestic and foreign officials. The enactment of Law No 21,121 in 2019 introduces the offence of commer - cial bribery. Companies are also subject to criminal liability regarding these offences.
Bribery of domestic public officials – as described in 3.1 Criminal Company Law and Corporate Fraud – is punished with imprisonment for a period ranging from two months to ten years and fines related to the circumstances of the bribe. Bribery of foreign officials constitutes an exception to the principle of territoriality generally applicable in Chile. In that sense, Chilean courts may have jurisdic - tion regarding the bribery of a foreign official commit - ted abroad, either by a Chilean national or a foreigner with residence in Chile. The offence consists of the offering or promising of an economic or any other ben - efit to a foreign public official in return for the foreign public official’s performance or omission of an act that would provide an unfair advantage in an inter - national transaction (or business deal) to the offeror of the bribe. Similar to the case of domestic officials, this conduct is sanctionable with imprisonment for a period ranging from three to ten years, restrictions on holding public office and a fine ranging from 200% to 400% of the amount of the bribe. If the benefit offered is not of a financial nature, the fines will range from 100 to 1,000 monthly tax units (UTM). Commercial bribery consists of requesting, accepting, offering or giving bribes of any kind to favour, within the authority of their duties, the engagement of one party over another. In the case of receiving a bribe, the employee that seeks or accepts it faces up to 18 months to three years of imprisonment and, in the case of an economic benefit, a fine of 100% to 200% of the bribe, whereas of any other nature, a fine rang - ing from 50 to 500 UTM. On the other hand, those that offer commercial bribes face 18 months to three years of imprisonment, whereas those who agree to offer a bribe privately face imprisonment for periods ranging from two to 18 months, and fines ranging from 50 to 500 UTM. 3.3 Anti-Bribery Regulation Chilean legislation does not include a specific obli - gation to prevent bribery, influence peddling or any other crime, nor a general legal obligation to report any crime. It also does not oblige companies to main - tain compliance programmes. Nonetheless, Law No 20,393 acknowledges the importance of compliance programmes; a suitable and effectively implemented
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