Reporting Concerns and Complaints

Anyone can send us a report. You do not have to work for us or have a business relationship with us:

• our employees
• business partners, customers and suppliers
• employees of our business partners, customers and suppliers
• people working in our supply chain
• anyone else affected by what we do

Tell us about anything that strikes you as wrong:

• breaches of applicable law
• breaches of our own principles
• breaches of our customers' codes of conduct that also apply to us
• human rights risks or violations arising from our activities or in our supply chain
• environmental risks or violations arising from our activities or in our supply chain

You do not need to be certain that your suspicion is correct. Report it if you seriously believe there is something to it.

There are two ways. Both count equally. You need no account, no password and no form.

You can report anonymously. We handle anonymous reports just as carefully as any other.

One thing to keep in mind: without a way to contact you, we cannot ask follow-up questions and cannot tell you the outcome. If you want a response but do not want to give your name, set up an email address that does not identify you.

Also note: an email shows us your sender address. This page uses no cookies and no tracking; our web server records the visit only with a shortened IP address. If you want to be certain, write to us by post without a return address.

Every report goes through the same four steps:

1. We confirm receipt within seven days — provided you have given us a way to contact you.
2. We look into the facts. If something is unclear, we come back to you with questions.
3. If the report is confirmed, we take the necessary corrective action and document it in writing.
4. We tell you the outcome — within three months of confirming receipt.

We treat the identity of the reporting person as confidential. We pass it on only where we are legally obliged to do so.

How we process the data in your report and how long we keep it is set out in the section “Hinweise und Beschwerden” of our privacy policy (German).

No one may be put at a disadvantage for having reported something to us. This applies to our own employees just as much as to business partners, suppliers and their employees.

Disadvantages include, for example, dismissal, a formal warning, worse commercial terms, or ending a business relationship. Attempting or threatening any of these is prohibited as well. If this happens to you, tell us.

Responsibility sits with the management: Lugh Vergenz.

Factory Data Solutions is a one-person company. Your report is therefore read and handled by exactly one person; it is not passed on to anyone internally.

If your report concerns the management itself, please go directly to the external reporting office of the German federal government.

You can go to an external reporting office at any time — instead of coming to us, or in addition. In Germany this is the external reporting office at the Federal Office of Justice:

External reporting office at the Federal Office of Justice (Bundesamt für Justiz)This page is available in German only.

Factory Data Solutions is not legally required to operate an internal reporting channel — the German Whistleblower Protection Act applies from 50 employees onwards. We run this procedure voluntarily. The commitments on this page apply regardless.