In the wake of recent public corporate scandals involving fraud and misconduct, regulators at a global level are increasing their oversight in the area of whistleblower protection as well as issuing substantial fines and penalties to public and private sector organizations for such misconduct. Several jurisdictions have implemented, recently updated, or are introducing whistleblowing laws and anti-retaliation measures in an effort to identify and combat fraud and misconduct across different sectors including financial, pharmaceuticals, and technology. These laws typically include recordkeeping and personal data protection requirements.
Organizations must ensure that their information governance programs and practices adequately account for records and reports generated through their whistleblowing systems. In particular, organizations are actively monitoring EU jurisdictions for local implementation of the EU Whistleblowing Directive (2019/1937) (“EU Directive”) which will occur either through amendments to existing whistleblower related laws or through the introduction of new legislation. The purpose of the EU Directive is to provide greater protection across EU jurisdictions for individuals seeking to expose breaches of EU law and to ensure a comprehensive regime across all EU member states. With the exception of Denmark and Sweden and as it currently stands, the majority of EU jurisdictions will likely not meet the local EU Directive implementation deadline of December...
A British science journalist-turned-attorney who initiated a lawsuit that saw a Harvard University-affiliated cancer centre pay $15 million (11 million) to settle claims of alleged data misreprese...