An interview with lawyer Dr. Menderes Güneş (Güneş & Hamdan Rechtsanwälte PartGmbB)
Güneş & Hamdan Rechtsanwälte PartGmbB is active in consulting and assists specialists from the automotive supply industry, mechanical and plant engineering as well as the medical device industry in legal matters. The focus is on contract law, product liability law and product safety law in national and international commercial law.
For more information about Dr. Güneş and Güneş & Hamdan Rechtsanwälte PartGmbB, please visit:
GH Legal (Link to external website)
>CSR+ legal is a new software module from GUKSA GmbH that offers you legal commentary on the requirements of IATF 16949 as well as corresponding recommendations for action. On request, the professional review is carried out by our cooperation partner Güneş & Hamdan Rechtsanwälte PartGmbB via our innovative service directly in our application.
Thus, you will be shown how the requirements of the regulations as well as the resulting consequences are to be classified legally.
How do you come into contact with customer-specific requirements in practice?
Clients who entrust us with the review of contractual documents relevant to a contractual relationship usually also provide us with the client-specific requirements, mostly contained in quality assurance agreements, for review, comment and adjustment.
How did you become aware of >CSR+?
We have been assisting a large number of our clients for several years and have therefore also examined various customer-specific claims for some of them in the past.
Due to the close cooperation, we are naturally also concerned with the question of how our clients succeed in keeping an eye on and fulfilling the customer-specific requirements in addition to the basic standard requirements.
In this context, a client has drawn our attention to >CSR+ (Mr. Sonntag, company Musashi Bad Sobernheim GmbH & Co. KG). To our initial question, we have found an answer (coupled with the solution) in the services offered by Guksa GmbH in >CSR+.
How did the contact with GUKSA GmbH come about?
Manuel Cordas dos Santos has been a dear colleague for many years. We were both automotive 3rd party auditors at DQS and did one or the other TS 16949 audit together. We were also both members of the VDA working group on customer specific requirements/CSR. For some years now, I have been conducting in-house VDA license training and examinations for auditors at MCS/Guksa. On the sidelines of these events in Lüdenscheid, Mr. Santos was always happy to keep me up to date on the new and further developed GUKSA software modules.
How did the planning and introduction of >CSR+ legal in cooperation with GUKSA GmbH come about?
After we learned about Guksa GmbH and the services it offers, we initially sought contact. Right from the start, it became clear that the chemistry between our two companies was right and that the way of thinking and approaching things was almost identical in many areas, even despite the actually different areas of work. >CSR+ legal was then the result of one of the exciting discussions we had with Guksa GmbH.
Where do you see the advantages and benefits of using >CSR+ legal for your clients?
For companies, it is first of all important to recognize that the requirements of IATF 16949 and also the customer-specific requirements are not only to be understood as entry requirements for cooperation with customers.
Both IATF 16949 and the customer-specific requirements intervene in the liability structure between buyer/orderer and seller/contractor specified by law, and this in part considerably and - not surprisingly - to the detriment of the seller/contractor. >CSR+ legal serves to highlight these risks - combined with suggestions and measures for dealing with and avoiding them.
What is the background/reason for the explicit comments on the individual requirements of IATF 16949?
As can be seen from the question, IATF 16949 does not contain one but several requirements for the organization of a company. The different requirements in turn have an effect on different legal requirements. The particular advantage of the >CSR+ legal is that the respective requirement of IATF 16949 is set in the context of the respective existing legal requirements.
Are there already considerations for extensions of >CSR+ legal?
Currently, >CSR+ legal includes a commentary on IATF 16949 from a legal perspective. It is planned that, in a next step, customer-specific requirements will also be commented on from a legal perspective in the same way as the general standard requirements, combined with suggestions and measures for dealing with and avoiding the resulting risks.
Are the legal commentaries (e.g. of IATF 16949) updated?
Yes. Fortunately, IATF 16949 is not subject to annual revisions or adjustments. However, the legal norm structure that surrounds IATF 16949 is in a constant state of flux, be it through new legal regulations or changing case law. In this respect, it is essential that these future developments are also reflected in the legal commentary on IATF 16949.
Thank you very much for the interview, Dr. Güneş!
We especially thank you for your active participation in the development of >CSR+ legal.
>CSR+ legal - The advantages and functions at a glance
- Legal security through legal commentary and recommendations for action on requirements and sections of IATF 16949 as well as customer-specific requirements
- Easily and conveniently send a request directly to our cooperation partner via the application if professional reviews and legal comments of customer-specific requirements are desired
- Individualization according to your company situation by viewing and supplementing the request results with your own statements and comments directly in the software
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