France already has fairly extensive legislative protection in place for whistleblowers under its “Sapin II” law, with certain private and public organisations required to operate whistleblowing schemes, but the scope of this protection is being expanded to ensure compliance with the EU Whistleblowing Directive. Legislation to that effect was supposed to go live in each EU member state by December last year but by what appears to be general and unspoken consent, most have focussed instead on more pressing matters relating to Covid and conflict in Ukraine, and it is only now that we are beginning to see material progress on the whistleblowing front.

Our summary of the Directive is here. UK businesses with French operations will need to accommodate the very significant difference in emphasis between the existing UK whistleblowing rules and this new regime which gives whistleblowers both passive protections and positive rights which go well beyond the UK provision. For UK businesses with French operations, this is not just a question of translating your UK whistleblowing rules into French and hoping that will do. It won’t.

On 21 March 2022, the French government implemented a new law that will make a number of important changes to Sapin II, as well as changes to the Code de Travail/Labour Code and various other laws.

At this stage the precise obligations that will be placed on affected businesses remain unclear. Further implementing legislation in the form of separate Decrees...

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