Clifford Chance
Is this the end of group wide whistleblower systems and central investigations
23 June 2021
The EU Whistleblower Protection Directive must be transposed into Member States' local legislation by 17 December 2021. With a little less than six months to go before the deadline, companies are asking important questions to the European Commission.
The Directive requires all legal entities in the private sector with 50 or more workers to provide whistleblowing channels for the reporting of certain categories of EU law infringements. While the regime specifies that legal entities with between 50 and 249 workers may share resources for the purposes of reporting, there is – according to the EU Expert Group – no such exception for group companies exceeding 249 workers. Can legal entities with 250 or more workers therefore no longer rely on central group whistleblowing systems and can groups no longer investigate complaints at a central level?
