The member states of the European Union are subject to the obligation to transpose the EU Whistleblower Directive („EUWD“) into national law by 17 December 2021. The German legislator has missed this implementation deadline, as have many other EU member states. Therefore, many companies face an uncertain legal situation since 18 December 2021, especially those that have not yet implemented a whistleblowing system so far.
Right now, the most pressing questions are as follows:
How should the legal situation be assessed for my company since 18 December? Is the EUWD directly applicable?
EU directives usually only oblige member states to transpose the content of the respective directive into national law, this also applies to the EUWD. An exception to this principle are those provisions of a directive that are to be classified as „self-executing“, as these provisions are directly applicable. These provisions are characterised by the fact that they are formulated in such a clear, independent and unconditional manner that no further transposition acts are required to determine which claims exist under the Directive, as the content of the regulations can already be derived completely from the Directive in these cases. However, this is only applicable to the extent that private legal entities are not affected. In this respect, the standards of the EUWD apply directly “only” to public companies since 18 December 2021.
Are there nevertheless serious risks for companies that...
The DMK president blamed the AIADMK leader for trying to scuttle Ungaludan Stalin initiative when it was introduced, by filing a petition in the court against it DMK president and Chief Minister M....