Five working groups, one mission: ICC Netherlands puts business integrity into practice

Doing business with integrity has rarely been more complicated, or more important. Sanctions regimes shift from one week to the next, enforcement priorities are changing across the globe, due-diligence rules keep expanding, and boards are asked to make difficult calls under real pressure. At the same time, smaller companies and supply-chain partners often lack the resources of large multinationals to keep up.

Bringing together compliance officers, in-house and external lawyers, bankers, auditors and corporates from across the Dutch business community, the Commission works through five focused working groups, each tackling a concrete challenge and producing practical, shareable guidance. At its meeting on 16 June 2026, all five reported real progress, with the first deliverables due to be published in the months ahead.

The approach is deliberately collaborative. Rather than producing theory, the groups draw on the day-to-day experience of leading Dutch and international companies and advisers, and aim to deliver tools that any organization, from a multinational to an SME, can pick up and apply.

What the working groups are building

Sanctions: managing complexity, risk and responsibility

This group is developing a set of minimum standards together with plain-language one-pagers that explain sanctions to non-specialists, supported by simple visual guides. Because sanctions law changes so rapidly, the materials are designed to build awareness, helping any employee recognise the warning signs and know when to involve a specialist, rather than to replace expert advice. The documents will be published under ICC Netherlands and shared with ICC's Global Commission, with a launch planned for the autumn.

Anti-corruption, bribery and conflicts of interest

As enforcement priorities shift in some parts of the world, this group is making the case that high standards should not. It is preparing “The Integrity Advantage”, an accessible toolkit for SMEs covering red flags, a script for handling pressure, gifts and hospitality, and dilemma navigation, alongside a business-integrity statement for larger corporates and their supply chains. The message is simple: whatever the political climate, the commitment to do business honestly stays firm. The deliverables are targeted for completion in October 2026.

Integrated integrity & sustainability due diligence: “breaking silos”

Many companies run separate checks for compliance, sustainability, cyber and data privacy, etc, often asking the same supplier to complete several questionnaires. This group is building a practical guide, including model contract clauses, to help organisations join these processes up into a single, more efficient approach to due diligence. The result combines the legal framework with real-world best practice and a clear business case.

Boardroom ethics, governance and decision-making under pressure

This group has nearly completed a comparative legal benchmark on the personal liability of board members across European jurisdictions, covering criminal, civil and administrative law. Building on that foundation, it is developing a board-level masterclass, using real-life crisis and pressure scenarios, to help directors navigate the grey-zone decisions that rules alone cannot resolve. The aim is to make ethics a practical, everyday part of how boards lead.

Corporate benchmarking of compliance programmes

How should a compliance function actually be organized? centralised, decentralised, and who should it report to? This group runs a candid, corporate-only forum under the Chatham House Rule, where companies compare how their programmes work and share best practices. Its first exchange looked at the governance of the compliance function, with the clear conclusion that there is no single blueprint, which is precisely why sharing and learning directly from peers is so valuable.

Building towards the Week of Integrity

The Commission's work feeds directly into the Week of Integrity 2026, which this year celebrates its 10th edition under the theme “Leading with Integrity in a Digital Age.” The main week runs from 26 to 30 October in The Hague, part of a year-round programme involving more than 110 partners, from a July webinar with Microsoft to the central seminar on 29 October and a closing event to follow. It is a trusted platform for the conversations that have no easy answers, and a chance for organisations to show that integrity is something they act on, not just talk about.

Get involved

The strength of the Commission comes from the people around the table. Whether your organisation can contribute expertise to a working group, share a good practice, host an event, or simply wants to stay close to the latest thinking on business integrity, there is a place for you.

Interested in joining a working group or becoming a partner? Get in touch with the ICC Netherlands team via info@icc.nl, we would be glad to tell you more and help you find the right fit.