Journey to Global Compliance: Insights from Tomedes' CEO

Dealing with all the different rules and regulations around the world can feel like trying to find your way through a maze of legal, cultural, and linguistic challenges. For businesses that operate internationally, understanding and putting in place effective compliance strategies is not just a good idea—it's essential. 

This guide is here to help you, whether you're a startup looking to break into new markets or a multinational corporation looking to make your operations more efficient. 

Understanding global compliance

Global compliance involves adhering to a variety of legal, financial, and ethical standards across different countries. Each jurisdiction may have its own set of rules governing everything from data protection to labor laws. Today, we spoke with Ofer Tirosh, the founder and CEO of Tomedes, to explore the crucial role of professional legal translations in achieving global compliance.

In our conversation, Tirosh pointed out that one of the primary challenges you may face is the regulatory and compliance landscape's complexity. This is where the role of effective professional legal translation becomes critical. To meet each country's legal standards, you must translate and localize your content accurately. This goes beyond direct translation and requires adapting your materials to fit legal and cultural expectations.

Misinterpretations and legal translation errors can lead to significant legal challenges, damaging a company’s reputation and financial standing. Therefore, employing skilled legal translators is not just beneficial but necessary for maintaining legal integrity in a global marketplace.

What compliance means to businesses

When discussing compliance in business, it refers to a company's commitment to adhering to laws and regulations across all aspects of its operations. This encompasses everything from employee hiring practices to financial reporting and beyond. 

For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU sets specific standards for handling personal data. These standards can differ significantly from the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S.

These differences show the need to understand and apply proper compliance measures to maintain legal integrity and avoid potential legal problems. Compliance not only helps avoid penalties but also supports the establishment of trust and credibility with stakeholders.

Multilingual challenges in international compliance

Here are seven challenges related to multilingual issues in international compliance:

1. Legal Nuances and Terminology: Ensuring that legal documentation is accurately translated while preserving the legal nuances and specific terminology in different languages can be complex. A literal translation may miss critical legal implications, leading to potential non-compliance.

2. Cultural Resonance: Compliance materials must not only be legally accurate but also culturally appropriate. A message that is clear and effective in one culture may be misinterpreted or offensive in another, leading to compliance failures or employee disengagement.

3. Consistency Across Languages: Maintaining consistency in compliance messaging across multiple languages is challenging. Variations in translations can lead to inconsistencies in the understanding and application of compliance policies.

4. Regulatory Requirements: Different countries have varying regulatory requirements that must be reflected in the compliance documentation. Ensuring that these requirements are accurately translated and understood in every language is a significant challenge.

5. Internal Compliance Training: Training materials for internal compliance need to be both linguistically accurate and accessible to employees in different countries. Ensuring that employees understand the material as intended, despite language barriers, is a crucial aspect of effective compliance training.

6. Legal Documentation Integrity: The integrity of legal documents must be preserved during translation. Misinterpretations or errors in translation can lead to legal liabilities or challenges in international legal proceedings.

7. Resource Allocation: Managing multilingual compliance requires significant resources, including skilled translators who understand both the language and the legal context. This can be resource-intensive, especially for multinational corporations operating in multiple jurisdictions.

International regulatory compliance

Investing in professional legal translation services transcends being merely an operational cost. It is an essential investment to ensure that regulatory compliance laws are met effectively.  

Professional legal translators are essential to ensure critical terms like "due diligence" or "indemnity" are translated accurately. This preserves their intended meaning and legal implications in different languages. 

When we asked Tirosh for a key best practice in global legal compliance, he emphasized the importance of having a clear objective. He stated that businesses should always know what their goals are.

"They should be clear about their goals. Whether they plan to export a product or service to a new market, it's crucial to understand why compliance matters and what specific regulations they need to follow," Tirosh explained.

Lacking clear objectives and goals can lead to serious problems. Tirosh emphasized that understanding your objectives helps you identify the specific compliance regulations required upfront. In many cases, translation alone isn't sufficient—you may need to localize or adapt content to meet regulatory standards.

This precision is crucial for minimizing the risk of legal disputes that can arise from misinterpretations in translated contracts or policies. By hiring skilled legal translators, businesses protect themselves from potential legal issues and ensure that their international documents meet high standards of legal integrity.

Leveraging technology for global regulatory compliance

Companies are increasingly adopting advanced machine translation tools to efficiently navigate global regulatory compliance. These AI and machine translation tools play a crucial role in translating and localizing legal documents across different regions, ensuring businesses can fully understand and comply with local regulatory standards.

Machine translation systems also offer real-time automatic updates on new regulations, translating complex legal requirements with precision. By automating the process, businesses save valuable time and reduce the risk of non-compliance due to outdated or misunderstood regulations. This technology allows organizations to quickly adjust their operations and maintain compliance in today’s rapidly evolving global regulatory environment.

In our conversation with Tirosh, we asked him how businesses can use technology like translation memory for multilingual documentation. He stated that businesses should leverage their past translations in order to make their future translations better and more consistent while saving them more money. The best way to do it is by retaining a memory database with translation memory.

"Basically, I believe that all language service providers or translation companies have access to the translation memories for any client and any business, they serve. So, I encourage clients to have their own translation memory," Tirosh explained.

He continued, "However, maintaining a clean translation memory can be challenging. So, this is something I would recommend businesses to put resources in order to make sure that the translation memory is high quality and prevent translation issues."

Lastly, we asked Tirosh where he sees global legal compliance for translation companies like Tomedes in the coming years. He said that the AI will play a significant part.

"Among all industries, AI is constantly evolving. The way we interact with technology and access data significantly impacts legal compliance and its future implications," Tirosh explained.

He highlighted that privacy, data security, and intellectual property are key areas that must be addressed. Currently, translation companies are leveraging large language models because they offer enhanced security and privacy. However, these technologies will still need to comply with evolving regulations. Both translation companies and businesses must be prepared to adapt quickly to new policies and regulatory changes.

Read more: Developing a Glossary for Legal Translation

Conclusion

In today's globalized business environment, understanding and implementing effective global compliance strategies is more critical than ever. By ensuring that your legal documents and compliance policies are accurately translated and culturally adapted, you can safeguard your operations against legal penalties and build a foundation of trust with international partners and customers.

Remember, global compliance is not just about avoiding penalties—it's about building a sustainable and ethical business practice that resonates with global audiences. So, as you expand your business horizons, keep these strategies in mind to ensure that your journey into new markets is smooth and compliant.

Ensure your global success with Tomedes, where our expertise in legal translations guarantees that your documents are not only accurate but also fully compliant with international standards. Partner with us today to navigate the complexities of global compliance with confidence and precision.