The long-awaited guidance on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to help multinational organizations comply with the law was released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 120-page guide, “A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,” provides information about the law for any size enterprise involved in multinational business, the DOJ said in a statement.

The guide aims to address topics including who and what is covered by the FCPA anti-bribery and accounting provisions; the definition of “foreign official”; what constitutes proper and improper gifts; facilitating payments; and travel and entertainment expenses.

The guide outlines the DOJ and SEC's approach to FCPA enforcement and provides hypothetical examples of enforcement actions and matters the agencies declined to pursue, according to the statement.

“Investors must have faith that the economic performance of public companies reflects lawful considerations of markets, price and product rather than a mirage resulting from bribery and corruption,” said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's division of enforcement, in the statement. “This guide will protect investors by assisting businesses in preventing such unlawful behavior, thus avoiding FCPA violations in the first place, which is in the interest of law enforcement and business alike.”

The guide “addresses thorny questions relating to successor liability, definition of an instrumentality and hospitality questions,” said Jacqueline Wolff, co-chair of the corporate investigations and white collar defense practice at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips L.L.P. in New York, in an email. “Although DOJ has noted its views with respect to some of these issues in papers submitted to the courts in FCPA prosecutions and in its opinion procedure releases, this is the first time DOJ and the SEC have collected their views in one place and anonymously disclosed the facts of cases where they decided not to prosecute.”

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“The long-anticipated guidance released today is unprecedented, both for its length (120 pages) and for speaking in a single voice for two separate enforcement agencies,” said Matthew T. Reinhard, a Washington-based member at law firm Miller & Chevalier Chartered, in an email. “While a thorough analysis will take some time, on early review it appears the agencies made serious efforts to respond to several areas where they had been criticized for a lack of transparency.”

Business groups in the United States have long awaited and argued for FCPA clarifications, sparking two Democratic congressmen to cite potential conflict of interest by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's effort to weaken the law.

The guide is available free of charge here.