Dun & Bradstreet halts China operations amid probe

BEIJING: Dun & Bradstreet, a global business information firm, said some of its local employees in China may have violated US anti-bribery laws and it had suspended operations at one of its local units pending an inquiry.

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), formed from a 1933 merger of two rival credit reporting agencies, said it was investigating allegations that data collection practices at Shanghai Roadway D&B Marketing Services Co, which it bought in 2009, might violate Chinese consumer data privacy laws.

D&B said the Shanghai Roadway unit had 2011 revenue of around Us$23mil and operating income of Us$2mil. Total group revenue last year was Us$1.76bil.

In addition to the data collection practices, D&B said it was reviewing complaints that local employees may have violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other laws at its China operations.

The company gave no specific details of the allegations, but said it was cooperating with a Chinese investigation and had voluntarily reported the matters to the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Calls to the Shanghai Roadway D&B Marketing Services unit went unanswered yesterday and attempts to access the company’s website generated an error message.

A report in the Shanghai Daily newspaper cited Shanghai police as saying they had confiscated four computer servers at the unit’s headquarters and questioned three senior executives.

State television said the company had private information including income levels, jobs and addresses for some 150 million Chinese residents and had sold individuals’ details for 1.5 yuan (23 US cents) each to companies involved in marketing or phone sales, the newspaper reported.

The report said the company had collected personal information from banks, insurance companies and real estate agents as well as from coldcall companies.