How to provide legal services for compliance management of business partners for film, television, cultural and entertainment enterprises?

2022 07/04

1、 Definition of Business Partner Compliance Management


Business partner management refers to the legal services provided to standardize and promote the compliance operation of business partners of customers in accordance with their compliance policies. In the context of global compliance, as an extension of business activities, business partners' violations often affect the enterprise itself. Enterprises that neglect compliance management of business partners often bear management responsibilities and business reputation losses. Therefore, larger enterprises or influential enterprises in the industrial chain often extend their compliance policies to business partner management.


Due to the needs of business development, film and television cultural and entertainment enterprises have a large number of business partners. For example, the shooting of film and television dramas involves many shooting venues, locations, settings, props, equipment, clothing providers, as well as directors, actors, photographers, editors, service technicians, recording, and other types of cast personnel. All of these require certain compliance management to prevent risks. This article takes the key partner "director" in film and television production enterprises as an example to explore.


2、 Director and director team members


As we all know, the director is the soul of film and television dramas, and the quality of a film and television drama depends to a large extent on the quality and cultivation of the director. It should be noted that the compliance management of directors by film and television production enterprises is not the compliance management of a single director in the production team. Generally speaking, according to the specific situation of the creation of film and television plays, a director group will be set up in the Chinese Mainland theater group, which is mainly equipped with the positions of chief director, executive director, on-site deputy director, director assistant, and scene recorder. In order to improve their work efficiency, many film and television drama crews will also be divided into Group A and Group B for filming, employing two director teams.


Therefore, this article believes that as a film and television production enterprise, in order to ensure the quality of its investment in film and television dramas, and ensure the normal shooting, production, distribution, and broadcast of film and television dramas, it can carry out compliance management work on "director" business partners


3、 Workflow for compliance management of commercial partners of film, television, cultural and entertainment enterprises


(1) Establish a delegation relationship


Film and television production enterprises shoot different film and television dramas, such as ancient costume palace drama, modern romance drama, through the air drama, suspense detective drama, and so on. They will choose to cooperate with director teams with different expertise and experience. Some commissioned director teams, even Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, or foreign teams, are located in different jurisdictions from film and television production enterprises, so there is a practical need for business partner compliance management.


Lawyers should communicate with clients to understand or inspire their compliance expectations for business partners and clarify current issues in business cooperation. After that, sign a special legal service contract with the customer to clarify the service content and scope.


(2) Understand the compliance management system and management model of business partners and provide relevant suggestions


After establishing a client relationship, the lawyer should verify whether the client has established a compliance management system. For enterprises that have established a compliance management system, lawyers should be familiar with and master the enterprise's compliance policy, compliance system, compliance operation mechanism, compliance post responsibilities, and other content related to the compliance management system. After that, relevant compliance policies, compliance systems, compliance operation mechanisms, and compliance post responsibilities applicable to the management of business partners are decomposed and integrated, forming a clear context for business partner compliance management.


If a customer has not yet established a compliance management system, they also need to understand their current partner management system and management model. Understand whether customers have hierarchical and early warning management for business partners; Whether the management departments, methods, and means of different types of business partners are appropriate; Whether the entry, assessment, and exit of commercial partnerships are smooth; Whether the entry, assessment, grading, and early warning standards of business partners are reasonable, etc.


After understanding the customer's compliance management system for business partners, lawyers can also provide optimization suggestions for the shortcomings of customer compliance management. Assist customers in sorting out the management system and process of business partners, and effectively control the possible risks of business partners.


(3) Sort out transaction documents and embed compliance requirements


Sort out transaction documents between customers and business partners and embed compliance requirements. Business partners can be required to sign a business partner compliance commitment, or compliance clauses can be added to the contract template, giving them the effect of applicable default clauses.
For example, when a film and television production enterprise signs a Director Entrustment Service Contract with a director team enterprise, it can attach the Integrity Agreement Letter as an attachment to the contract. The content of the Integrity and Integrity Engagement Letter generally includes the following:


1. Integrity


The director team enterprises are required to adhere to the principle of integrity and promise not to engage in dishonest acts of deception or even fraud in their business dealings with film and television production enterprises.


2. Anti unfair interests


The director team enterprise is required to promise not to directly or indirectly provide any form of unfair benefits to the employees of the film production enterprise in order to facilitate the signing and performance of the cooperation contract, or obtain higher commercial benefits, better commercial treatment, or value-added securities market or any other form of trading opportunities or competitive advantage than any third party.


3. Anti Corruption and Anti Bribery


The director team is required to promise to resist corruption and bribery, comply with the anti bribery and anti-corruption laws and regulations of China and any applicable country or region, as well as the provisions of international conventions, and promise not to directly or indirectly contact any government agency, company, enterprise, and other organizations and groups, government officials "Non State employees offer to pay, give, promise to pay, or authorize the payment of any remuneration, gifts, or other valuable items or benefits that violate laws and regulations.".


4. Feedback channels for integrity issues


Explicit feedback channels for issues such as reporting phone numbers and email addresses. If a director team enterprise discovers that employees of a film and television production enterprise have solicited bribes or other dishonest behaviors, it can report through this channel.


Business partners can also be required to sign a "Business Partner Compliance Commitment", which involves many factors, mainly including: integrity and law-abiding, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, fair competition, information protection, intellectual property rights, industry ethics and norms, finance and taxation, supervision and regulation, complaints and reporting, reward and punishment provisions, and so on.


Of course, compliance clauses can also be added to the contract template. The content of compliance clauses in the contract can be abbreviated by referring to the "Compliance Commitment of Business Partners".


(4) Conduct compliance training


Assist customers in conducting compliance training for business partners and promoting their compliance philosophy. Assisting customers in conducting compliance training for business partners is different from conducting "compliance training business" for customers. The training process can be relatively simplified, and the training content is mainly focused on the compliance commitments of business partners. The training targets are mainly business personnel and business teams who are directly responsible for the cooperation projects of business partners. For a director team enterprise, it is recommended that the executive director, on-site assistant director, director assistant, recording, administrative finance, and other personnel participate in the training.


(5) Smooth complaint channels


Smooth complaint channels for business partners, ensure that various complaint channels such as reporting phone numbers, reporting email addresses, and reporting websites can be effectively used, and timely receive complaints and reports from relevant business partners against the enterprise, as well as complaints and reports from other parties against relevant business partners.


After receiving relevant complaints and reports, it is necessary to treat the complainants confidentially, promptly carry out investigations, resolve conflicts, solve problems, and conduct relevant handling after verification.


The above is a brief discussion on the compliance legal services of "business partner compliance management" for film and television cultural and entertainment enterprises in this article. Our compliance team will continue to explore relevant legal issues such as "how lawyers provide compliance legal services" for the film and television cultural and entertainment industry. We welcome your continued attention.