Publication
Keeping your dawn raid guidance current
Unannounced inspections or ‘dawn raids’ are used by antitrust authorities to obtain evidence when there are suspicions that individuals or businesses have infringed the antitrust rules.
Global | Publication | May 2018
The first-ever whistleblowing regulation generally applicable to the private sector in Italy came into force on December 29, 2018, with the passage of Law No. 179/2017 (the Law). The protection scheme for whistleblowers provided by the Law is applicable only when the company-employer has adopted an organizational model for crime prevention pursuant to Decree No. 231/2001 relating to corporate criminal liability (the Decree 231 Model).
In particular, the Law requires that companies having the Decree 231 Model, set up a mandatory reporting system for the protection of whistleblowers. This system must provide one or more channels allowing employees to report:
in order to safeguard the company-employer’s integrity.
However, the available lines of reporting in this situation are limited to:
The aim of the legislation is clearly to address bribery and corruption, accounting irregularities, money laundering and similar issues.
The Law provides wider protection to whistleblowers in the private sector the position prior to the implementation of the Law. In particular, the Law provides that:
Moreover, it is important to note these protections are afforded not only to subordinate employees but also to self-employed workers; in fact, the Law expressly refers to “the employee or the contractor”.
The nature of the protection provided by the Law for the whistleblower of a government sector employer is similar to that of a private sector employer:
Moreover, the Law clarifies that for purposes of application of the Law, “public employee” includes:
Whistleblowing policies may never be used as a tool to monitor or evaluate employee performance, or to investigate facts not pertaining to an employee’s working capabilities or to the employer's business.
The Law also provides specific exceptions to the secrecy regime, under certain conditions, in order to pursue the interest of preventing wrongdoings.
The Law provides greater protection to Government sector whistleblowers than in the past. In particular,
As with the private sector, the Law provides specific exceptions to this secrecy regime, under certain conditions, in order to pursue the interest of preventing wrongdoings.
In case of non-compliance, the Law provides for disciplinary sanctions against anyone who violates the measures aimed at protecting the whistleblowers.
Moreover, the whistleblower or his or her union representative has the right to report any detrimental measure against the whistleblower to the National Labour Inspectorate.
In case of non-compliance, any dismissal, demotion or any other retaliatory or detrimental measure taken against the whistleblower is null and void and the burden of proof is on the employer.
Finally, failure to implement measures to protect whistleblowers or non-compliance with Law as regards protecting whistleblowers may also lead to nullifying the exemption regime on corporate criminal liability, which would otherwise derive from the adoption of the Decree 231 Model by the employer-company.
In the Government sector, the whistleblower (or his or her union representative) must notify ANAC of any alleged retaliatory or detrimental measure taken against the whistleblower, in order for any remedy action to be taken or sanction to be imposed.
Following due notification, the Law provides for the following sanctions/remedies:
Yes. The first whistleblowing rules in Italy were applicable primarily to the financial services sector (banks, financial institutions and providers and insurance companies). For these sectors, even prior to the passage of the new Law, the adoption of whistleblowing policies was either required or recommended as part of anti-corruption schemes or management models in order to prevent certain business crimes.
Recently, Italy has adopted stricter anti-money-laundering regulation, financial intermediaries regulation and insurance distribution regulation that impose new and specific obligations on companies active in the financial services sector regarding the adoption of reporting channels and the protection of whistleblowers.
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Notes
Based on EU directives on data protection, in Italy a data controller must take all reasonable technical and organisational precautions to preserve the security of processed personal data.
Not applicable
Publication
Unannounced inspections or ‘dawn raids’ are used by antitrust authorities to obtain evidence when there are suspicions that individuals or businesses have infringed the antitrust rules.
Publication
On 26 July 2024, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) jointly released revised rules in respect of the investments into China’s financial market through the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor and Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (collectively, QFII) regime (the New Rules).
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