Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook: Technology, Finance, Environmental, and International Guidance and Best Practices

CHAPTER 37

RETAIL

Ivano Ortis

37.1 INTRODUCTION

37.2 COMPLIANCE IN THE RETAIL INDUSTRY

37.3 CONSUMER SAFETY

(a) Food Track and Trace

(b) General Product Safety Requirement

37.4 ENVIRONMENT: RECYCLING

37.5 DATA AND PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS

37.6 LOOKING AHEAD

REFERENCES

37.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter highlights the major retail-specific regulations, while providing future perspectives of the impact on processes and technology that are required to tackle present and future compliance dynamics. General accounting and enterprise principles such as labor legislations are out of the chapter's scope, although they apply to retail enterprises as well.

Retail organizations continue to be challenged by regulations compliancy and by the uncertainty about future regulatory changes. Rapid social trends, developments, and changes in government are posing additional complexities, thus requiring companies to develop a holistic approach to regulations and society evolution. In the retail industry, compliance is driven by government bodies, but, as in other industries, it is also market-generated. In addition, the increasing complexity of elongated global retail supply chains—better described in today's environment as "supply networks"—poses some additional challenges on identifying the responsibility of each party in the value network. As an example, food manufacturers, retailers, hotels, and restaurants are facing increasing social challenges such as an augmentation in the rate of obesity in many developed ...