On March 6th, the European Court of Justice fined five countries for failure to implement whistleblower protections via a 2019 agreement. The court fined Germany €34 million, the Czech Republic €2.3 million, Hungary €1.75. million, and Luxembourg and Estonia each €500,000.
In 2019, the EU passed the landmark Whistleblower Directive, mandating that Member States institute stronger whistleblower anti-retaliation protections and provide safe internal and external reporting channels. The Directive mandated that Member States craft such protections by December 2021. However, according to a 2024 report by the European Commission, only three Member States had adopted mandated protections by the deadline.
The countries fined in Thursday’s action failed to implement the whistleblower protections required by the Directive, leaving reporting persons who exposed fraud, tax evasion, data breaches, and other wrongdoing vulnerable to retaliation. The Commission’s report lamented the widespread delay in Member States’ compliance with the Directive, stating that “the lack of confidential reporting channels and appropriate protection has a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers.”
