Whistleblowing : An Obligation And A Business Opportunity

• Published date: 06 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Criminal Law, Privacy, Privacy Protection, White Collar Crime, Anti-Corruption & Fraud, Whistleblowing
• Law Firm: Lydian
• Author: Mr Bastiaan Bruyndonckx, Jan Hofkens, Sandra Lodewijckx and Yves Lenders

Persons working in public and private organisations are key in detecting fraudulent behaviour in the context of their work environment. For safeguarding your business and allowing a speak-up culture within your organisation, a proper protection of the 'whistleblower' is crucial.

Directive (EU) 2019/1937 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law (the Directive) sets out the minimum standards for an enhanced protection of whistleblowers, in particular through protection against retaliation and claims for damages. The Directive has been implemented by the Law of 28 November 2022 transposing the EU Whistleblower Directive for the private sector. The Law has been published in the Official Gazette of 15 December 2022.

The law enters into force on 15 February 2023. Regarding the implementation of internal reporting channels, there is an exception for legal entities in the private sector with 50 to 249 employees: those specific rules will only apply to them from 17 December 2023. But the other rules of the law (e.g. protection for whistleblowers) do already apply as from 15 February 2023.

Our team can assist you in implementing the obligations that follow from the Law, including the duty to establish channels and procedures for internal reporting, ensuring a diligent follow-up, maintaining confidentiality, giving feedback to the whistle-blower and addressing the reported breaches.

Our offering allows you to check the boxes to properly implement the Law and covers the full scope of the instruments and advice you require:

Flow charts Assistance in designing the (internal and external) procedures to

...