Voluntary compliance is one of possible ways of practicing

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

. Voluntary compliance is seen as an alternative to the state-imposed

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...

on a company's behavior. Proponents of voluntary compliance argue that it is in a company's own interest to behave in a socially responsible manner and that in pursuit of good public image, the company will refrain from actions which could damage its perception by the public. Thus there is no need for state

. On the other hand, opponents deem that companies may claim to voluntarily adhere to self-imposed regulations but in practice they often follow profit maximizing behavior, often violating stakeholders' interests. However, such behavior may be problematic not only morally or ethically but also legally: corporate codes of conduct may give rise to legal obligations pursuant to national laws of

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

member states implementing the

Unfair Commercial Practices Directive The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/ECOfficial Journal of the European Union, L149/22 – L149/39, 11 June 2005 regulates unfair business practices in EU law, as part of European consumer law. It requires corresponding laws to b ...

or pursuant to consumer protection laws in other jurisdictions, including (subject to the effect of the Federal and State constitutions) the States of the United States of America. In the United States, voluntary compliance may also refer to an argument made by

tax protesters A tax protester is someone who refuses to pay a tax claiming that the tax laws are unconstitutional or otherwise invalid. Tax protesters are different from tax resisters, who refuse to pay taxes as a protest against a government or its policies ...

who suggest that payment of

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

is voluntary, and not legally enforceable. However, this argument is rejected by the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

, and has not been accepted by the U.S.

courts A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...

References

{{reflist Corporate social responsibility