Watch out! Before making your report, please be sure to read the information below to check that you meet the conditions set by Directive (EU) 2019-1937 of October 23, 2019 to benefit from the protection offered by the latter.

What type of whistleblower is protected?

• All types of stakeholder (i.e. both EU citizens and third-country nationals are protected provided they deal with EU companies, such as civil servants, self-employed, employees, volunteers, former and future employees, shareholders, members of the administrative, management or supervisory body, trainees, subcontractors, etc.),
• Acting in good faith,
• Having obtained information on potential non-conformities and
• Having first turned to the WhistleLine platform as an internal channel .

This will protect whistleblowers from reprisals, threats and attempted reprisals.

What areas can be reported (any country)?

• Combating money laundering
• Consumer protection
• Environmental protection
• Transport safety and compliance
• Radiation protection and nuclear safety
• Public health
• Public and service contracts
• Privacy policy
• EU financial interests and competition law
• State aid and corporate taxation rules

What are the specific areas targeted by certain countries?

• Social or tax fraud (Belgium).

How can whistleblowers report?

The Whistleblowers Directive establishes a three-tier reporting system:

• Internal company reporting,
• External reporting to authorities appointed by authorities and
• Public disclosure.

To benefit from the protection afforded to whistle-blowers, they must comply with the following procedure:

• First level (tier 1): reporting to the organization = internal reporting,
• Second level (level 2): if the alert cannot be processed internally within a reasonable timeframe, it is referred to the competent judicial or administrative authorities = external alert.
• Third level (tier 3): as a last resort, if not handled by the competent authorities, the alert may be made public = public disclosure

How is whistleblower protection implemented?

If there are reasonable grounds to believe that the whistleblower's information

• are true at the time of reporting
• and that the information falls within the scope of the whistle-blowing directive,

The whistleblower is therefore protected.

What is the whistleblower's responsibility?

As stipulated above, the whistleblower must make his or her report in good faith, without malice, and guarantee that he or she has obtained information about potential non-conformities within the company.

Failing this, we draw the whistleblower's attention to the fact that he or she may be held liable to his or her company.

What is WHISTLELINE's responsibility?

WhistleLine is the intermediary between the whistleblower and the company for which WhistleLine provides the reporting platform (tier 1). We handle reports completely independently of the company. Although the Whistleblowers Directive formally prohibits any form of retaliation against the whistleblower, we cannot be held responsible if the company ignores this prohibition. However, WhistleLine will be able to help you in the event of reprisals by the employer, which will have been communicated to WhistleLine in accordance with the legislation of the country in which the alert was issued.

Should WhistleLine be held liable, this liability will be limited to direct damages, to the exclusion of all indirect damages. WhistleLine can never be held responsible for damages deemed indirect such as, but not limited to, loss of Data, financial or commercial prejudice, loss of profits, increase in overheads, disruption of planning.

Furthermore, WhistleLine cannot be held responsible for any damage resulting from illegitimate manipulation of the Data by third parties (theft of Data, viruses, phishing or other computer crimes).

We would also like to point out that links to the Website may contain hypertext links and other references to other sites which we do not manage or control and to which these provisions do not apply. We are not responsible for the content of these websites or for the offers, products and services they provide. We therefore recommend that you carefully read the privacy policy of each site you visit, which may differ from the present policy.

Privacy policy

We refer you to our Privacy Policy for more information about the processing of your personal data in connection with your report.

Applicable law and jurisdiction

These provisions shall be governed, interpreted and enforced in accordance with Belgian law, which shall be the sole applicable law in the event of a dispute.

Any dispute which cannot be settled amicably within a period not exceeding one month from the date of its occurrence, which period may be extended by mutual agreement, may be brought by the most diligent party before the French-speaking Courts and Tribunals of the judicial district of Nivelles (Belgium), which shall have sole jurisdiction.

Effective date

These general reporting conditions were created and came into force on 21.07.2022. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these terms and conditions at any time.

V1.0