The notification within the framework of the EU Whistleblowing Directive
Besides the „whistleblower“ themselves, the report is the central component of a whistleblowing system. But how is such a report defined, and what types of reports fall under the EU Whistleblowing Directive? We want to answer these questions in Part 6 of our Whistleblowing Basics series.
First, a definition: What is a hint?
Indications according to the EU Whistleblowing Directive
Let's now move on to the second part: What types of reports fall under the EU Whistleblowing Directive? According to the EU Whistleblowing Directive, breaches of the following requirements are to be reported:
- Breaches of consumer protection
- Breaches of environmental protection
- Infringements of the financial interests of the Union
- Breaches of competition and
- Breaches of tax and anti-money laundering law
These are requirements of EU law. Each country can expand the scope of reportable violations in its implementation into national law. It is entirely possible and, based on current information (as of February 2022), probable that the German legislator will include violations of German law in the Whistleblower Protection Act. Fundamentally, you can therefore assume that in the future all reports of violations of EU law and national law will fall under whistleblower protection. Furthermore, as a company, you have the latitude to also address ethical violations and violations of your company's own code of conduct. This offers you the opportunity to counteract violations of the law proactively and to prevent further damage.
Handling tips: A tip comes in – now what?
Regard hints as what they are: a smoke detector signal, an indication of infringements or problems in your company. This is the opportunity for your company to first address the suspicion internally, to investigate and find a solution before the infringement leads to far-reaching consequences for your company. Also consider that hints can also provide insight into internal problems within the company. Although they don't necessarily have external consequences, they are potentially internal challenges that can affect your company culture, for example. If such problems escalate, they can also end in legal violations in the worst case.
Tips are your company's pulse metre. How your company deals with tips in the spirit of the EU Whistleblowing Directive forms the basis for implementing your whistleblowing system within the company. How you shape the introduction of the whistleblowing system and which priorities you set in communication, in turn, influences the extent to which your employees use the whistleblowing system, what tips consequently reach you, and how often employees make abusive use of the system in cases of doubt.
Therefore, as an entrepreneur, you can best prevent abuse of the whistleblower system by clearly and regularly informing your employees about the types of concerns you hope to receive and how concerns will be handled. An internal company code of conduct also helps to provide a guideline for your employees. Transparent and open communication, as well as a constructive working environment in which mistakes are handled constructively, are a promising approach to prevent both legal violations and abuse of the whistleblower system.
How to best implement a whistleblowing system and prevent abuse, experienced You in our guide „Implementing the Whistleblower Protection Act in your company“.
If you want to learn more about the EU Whistleblowing Directive or whistleblowing systems, please feel free to look at our Know-how page over. Do you have any further questions? Contact You eager one of our experts for a personal conversation.
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