Soon
On July 15, 2023, the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority issued the new interpretative guidelines of Legislative Decree no. 24/2023, which develops the EU Directive on complaints.
The new Guidelines aim to provide practical guidance to those employers who, under the new law, are now required to implement their own internal reporting channels. In particular, the guidelines provide further guidance on the application requirements and clarify the basic principles that the employer “may” take into account when establishing its whistleblowing policy, subject to the possibility of future clarifications by the Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority (ie the authority empowered to issue the relevant sanctions in case of non-compliance with Italian whistleblowing legislation).
Specifically, the guidelines provide more detail on:
The scope of the legislation, clarifying who should be protected from retaliation, including whistleblowers and facilitators. Violations may be reported in accordance with Italian law. The ways in which internal reporting channels should be set up and how reports can be presented. The people in charge of managing these internal information channels. Information to be provided to potential reporters. The management of anonymous reports, which were not specifically regulated by the Italian legislation implementing the EU Directive. The ways in which personal data must be processed and the relevant data privacy requirements under Italian law.
It is worth noting that the new Guidelines do not provide clarification on multinational groups or the possibility of having both “global” and local complaint channels.
The Italian National Anti-Corruption Authority, however, reiterates that Italian law only allows “medium and small” companies (i.e. employing up to 249 employees) to use the whistle-blowing and whistle-blowing channels of other medium- and small-sized group companies through specific agreements, provided in any case the need for company-level reporting management.
