According to the new draft proposal of the Act on Criminal Liability of Legal Persons (the “Act”), certain types of conduct by legal entities or their representatives will be punishable also under criminal law. If adopted, the act will provide for the prosecution of legal entities for more than 40 criminal acts. The bill is a reaction to continuing pressures from various international organizations to implement the concept of criminal liability into the Slovak law.

Upon first look, the bill establishes only the minimum standards as required under international law and introduces criminal liability only in respect of certain categories of criminal acts. It seems that this has been the priority for the legislator as the Act aims to punish crimes occurring predominantly in the areas such as international drug trade, human trafficking, sexual abuse, money counterfeiting and money laundering, data security and system integrity, preservation of the environment, terrorism, corruption, and extremism.