Netherlands

The legislation is final and has largely entered into force. The only exceptions are the requirements around anonymous reporting and the sanctions that can be imposed by the House for Whistleblowers, as lower legislation still needs to be drafted on these two topics. With regards to the anonymous reporting, it is expected to be implemented in the second half of 2025. With regards to the sanctions that can be imposed by the House for Whistleblowers, this is still under construction. However, a breach of secrecy regarding the identity of the whistleblower by the employer would already trigger a legal secrecy clause, leading to a potential jail sentence (maximum of one year) or a fine.

Employers will have to appoint an independent person(s) to receive the whistleblower reports and an independent person(s) to follow up on the report. This can be the same person(s). Also, going forwards, if new confidentiality clauses are put in a contract with an employee, these clauses will be null and void if there is no exception for whistleblowing reports. The Works Council or other form of employee representative body will have to agree with the proposed whistleblower procedure. If there is no such body, employers need to organize a vote and more than 50% of the employees need to agree with the procedure. An employee can also take its employer to court if the whistleblowing procedure does not meet the legal requirements.

There is no specific requirement in the Dutch law to encourage employees to report internally first. Employees can make their own decision to report internally or externally. If they want to report externally they can go to the House for Whistleblowers or the relevant authorities (regulators or supervisors).

The Dutch regulations follow the EU Directive in this matter. Examples of the exception can be found in for instance in companies that fall under the Wft (Dutch Financial Supervision Act) or Wwft (the anti-money laudering/countering financing of terrorism legislation).

No such requirement exists in the national legislation.

No, there is no such requirement in the national law.

In case that one of the external or additional authorities receive a report on which this authority has no legal authority, the authority is required to forward this as soon as possible to the proper authority that has the legal authority. This has to be done swift and via a safe channel. Local legislation however states that the whistleblower first needs to consent with the forwarding of the whistleblower report to that other authority. If the whistleblower does not consent to this, the receiving authority needs to inform the whistleblower that they cannot act upon the information in the reporting.

In case the authority comes to the conclusion that the public interest is not at stake or that the wrongdoing is not sufficiently comprehensive, the authority has to inform the whistleblower of this decision, based on an substantiated reasoning, unless this would be conflicting with a confidentiality obligation.

This has been covered in the local legislation. Within six weeks after the whistleblowing report an investigation has to be started, unless certain exceptions are in play, such as another report on the same wrongdoing is already being or has already been investigated or that a court has already ruled on the wrongdoing with no possibility of an appeal.

In case the competent authority wants to make this decision, this has to be reported back to the whistleblower within the timeframe of three months.

As per the first of February 2024, whistleblowers have a right to financed legal aid or mediation. Whistleblowers can reach out to the Advice department within the House for Whistleblowers. If that department concludes that legal assistance is needed, the whistleblower will receive a recommendation letter. With this letter they can apply for legal assistance via the Legal Aid Board (Raad voor Rechtsbijstand). When granted, there are no requirements regarding the income or the assets of the whistleblower, nor is there a contribution requested from the whistleblower. This addition is also applicable to all involved third parties and people who assist the reporter.

The legislation is final and has entered into force. The authority for the House for Whistleblowers to impose fines has however been postponed. This part of the legislation has not entered into force yet.

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Based on the local legislation, the whistleblower has to be able to at least report in writing, orally via phone of other messaging services or via a face-to-face meeting on a location. It is likely that the first two reporting channels need to be used anonymized, but this legislation is not in effect yet. It is likely that this is implemented in the second half of 2025.