Adoption of a new law improving the protection of whistleblowers in companies with more than 50 employees. The law implements an EU directive and goes beyond the European requirements.

New whistleblower status

New whistleblower definition

A whistleblower remains a "natural person" (thus excluding legal entities, in particular works councils and associations), with the following clarifications:

• The ambiguous requirement of an alert made "outside any particular interest" that was open to interpretation is replaced by a more precise requirement of an alert made "without direct financial compensation".
• The condition of seriousness required in certain cases (threats or harm to general interests, reporting any violations of international commitments, of the law or regulations) is removed.
• In addition to the violation of an international commitment, of a unilateral act of an international organization based on such a commitment, of the law or regulations, violations of European Union law can now be reported or disclosed; this is also the case for attempts to conceal said violations.
• Until now, a whistleblower was supposed to have a personal knowledge of the facts reported, which was a guarantee of their seriousness. From now on, the Law reserves this condition to information obtained outside professional activities.

New protections

• The Law contains a long list of prohibited retaliations (in particular, any violations of fair performance of employment contracts and any...

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