Briefing on Whistleblowing and the most recent case law on the issue
Whistleblowing has been under the attention of the Italian Data Protection Authority (hereinafter the ‘Authority’) for some time now and the Authority has pronounced itself on the subject on several occasions in recent years[1]. In this scenario, the non-implementation of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 (hereinafter, the ‘Directive’)[2], on the part of the Italian legislator has not facilitated the adherence of organizations to the legislation at hand, which is still not harmonized today, (in particular, Article 6, c. 2-bis of Legislative Decree no. 231/2001, concerning private organizations, Article 54-bis of Legislative Decree no. 165/2001, concerning public administrations). The aforementioned Directive, which imposes an obligation on Member States to lay down common minimum standards to ensure effective protection of Whistle-blowers[3] – through organic regulation for both the private and the public sector, has not yet been transposed into Italian law. The deadline for the Government to exercise the delegated power to implement it expired on 17 December 2021[4].
Recently, the Authority returned to the issue of Whistleblowing, confirming that ‘Public administrations and Companies must observe the maximum care in setting up and managing Whistleblowing systems, guaranteeing the highest confidentiality of employees and other persons reporting illegal behaviours’. Indeed, on 7 April, the Authority published two...
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