{"id":24254,"date":"2019-11-04T10:13:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T09:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/news\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T16:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:14:50","slug":"whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/insights\/legislation-en\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistleblowing: Italian law and EU Directive compared"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On 7 October 2019, the\nEuropean Council adopted the Directive on the “Protection of\nindividuals who report breaches of EU law<\/em>“<\/strong>\n(known as whistleblowers<\/em>), i.e. those\nwithin the territory of the European Union who report misconduct of which they\nhave become aware in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Member States of the Union\nhave two years from the forthcoming date of publication<\/strong> of the Directive\nin the Official Journal of the European Union, in order to transpose the EU\nregulations into national law. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The measure aims to\nharmonise, within the European Union, the regulations on whistleblowing<\/em>, giving all countries the opportunity to model their\nnational legislation on the basis of best international standards and\npractices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, Italian Law\n179\/2017 will be affected by numerous changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparison\nbetween Italian legislation and the EU Directive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first aspect intended to\nbe amended concerns the scope. Whilst the Italian law applies only to companies\nthat have adopted management and control models (so called “Organisational\nModel 231”), the Directive concerns all private companies with more\nthan 50 employees or an annual turnover exceeding \u20ac10 million<\/strong>\n(irrespective, therefore, of the application of Model 231). Small- and\nmedium-sized enterprises are therefore exempted, with the exception of those\noperating in high-risk sectors (e.g. financial risk or money laundering risk).\nAs regards the public sector, the EU directive leaves it up to the Member\nStates to exempt municipalities with less than ten thousand inhabitants and\npublic bodies with less than fifty employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The directive also broadens\nthe scope of protected subjects<\/strong>, including, not only employees, but also\nself-employed workers, freelancers, consultants, contractors, suppliers,\nvolunteers, trainees<\/strong>, etc. Protection is also extended to informants’\nfamily members and colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public authorities and\ncompanies receiving a report are required to follow up within three months,\notherwise the reporter shall be entitled to publish the information (e.g. via\nthe internet or social media).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, as regards the\nItalian legislation that refers to “information channels”, the\ndirective provides for the appointment of a company contact person <\/strong>(department\nor person) responsible for receiving the report to be verified within three\nmonths.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Directive also\ncovers the sectors subject to reporting<\/strong>. Whilst in Italian legislation\nthe areas covered by the reports concern the offences referred to in\nLegislative Decree no. 231\/2001 (i.e.., “alleged offences”), the\nEuropean directive, on the other hand, includes additional sectors, such as\npublic procurement, financial services, privacy and data protection, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, as regards anonymous\nreports, whilst in Italy, in the public sector, the identification of the\nreporter is foreseen and, in the private sector, anonymous reports are\npermitted, the Directive allows for anonymity, leaving it up to the Member\nStates to decide whether public bodies and authorities are obliged to accept\nthese types of alerts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 7 October 2019, the European Council adopted the Directive on the “Protection of individuals who report breaches of EU law“ (known as whistleblowers), i.e. those within the territory of the European Union who report misconduct of which they have become aware in the workplace. Member States of the Union have two years from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177,190,191],"tags":[721,2418],"class_list":{"0":"post-24254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-insights","8":"category-legislation","9":"tag-directive","10":"tag-whistelblowing"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhistleblowing: Italian law and EU Directive compared - De Luca & Partners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24254\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whistleblowing: Italian law and EU Directive compared - De Luca & Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On 7 October 2019, the European Council adopted the Directive on the “Protection of individuals who report breaches of EU law“ (known as whistleblowers), i.e. those within the territory of the European Union who report misconduct of which they have become aware in the workplace. Member States of the Union have two years from the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.delucapartners.it\/en\/insights\/legislation-en\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"De Luca & Partners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-04T09:13:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-16T15:14:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Melismelis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Melismelis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/insights\\\/legislation-en\\\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/insights\\\/legislation-en\\\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Melismelis\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/00d0832a12e3889dce887a31e29d65f8\"},\"headline\":\"Whistleblowing: Italian law and EU Directive compared\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-04T09:13:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-16T15:14:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/insights\\\/legislation-en\\\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":458,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Directive\",\"Whistelblowing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Insights\",\"Insights\",\"Legislation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/insights\\\/legislation-en\\\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.delucapartners.it\\\/en\\\/insights\\\/legislation-en\\\/whistleblowing-italian-law-and-eu-directive-compared\\\/\",\"name\":\"Whistleblowing: Italian law and EU Directive compared - 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