Protection for whistleblowers
Do you wish to file a report about a business that is not complying with the rules? And did you discover this through your work? In that case, you may be considered a whistleblower. In that case, you are afforded special legal protection. In order to qualify for whistleblower protection, your report must meet certain criteria.
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Criteria for whistleblower protection
If you meet the following criteria, the Dutch Whistleblower Protection Act (in Dutch: Wet bescherming klokkenluiders) automatically affords you protection as a whistleblower.
You discovered it through your work
Your report must relate to something that you discovered through your work.
For example, in your capacity as:
- an employee
- a temporary employee
- an intern
- a supplier
- a customer
- a principal
- a volunteer
- an applicant
This also applies to situations where you had this relationship prior to or after the filing of your report. If you file a report about a violation as a consumer (in Dutch), you are not considered a whistleblower.
You are reasonably certain of it
You have experienced it yourself, or you have seen something. It must be more than just hearing a rumor or reading something in the papers.
Wrongdoing or a violation
Your report is about a violation of one of the European rules that ACM enforces. For example, these can be consumer protection rules or competition rules.
Your report can also be about other rules that ACM enforces, but, in that case, the public interest must be at risk. That is the case if the consequences are significant or serious. Or if they can become so. Or more people may be harmed, and it happens often.
Reporting violations as a whistleblower
If you meet the criteria for whistleblower status, the Dutch Whistleblower Protection Act (in Dutch: Wet bescherming klokkenluiders) automatically affords you protection as a whistleblower, when filing a report. You can file a report with ACM over the phone or online if you believe that a company does not comply with the rules.
If you feel more comfortable setting up a physical meeting for filing your report, please call us to make an appointment.
We do not make audio recordings of reports filed over the phone. ACM will draw up minutes of your report filed over the phone or at the offices of ACM, which will be sent to you for approval.
Protection for whistleblowers
Protection against harm
The law protects you as a whistleblower against any harm that you may suffer as a result of your report. For example, the company about which you file a report cannot fire you or cancel a promotion or a pay raise. If you file a report as a supplier or subcontractor, the company in question cannot, for example, terminate a contract simply because of your report. In principle, the company about which you file a report cannot harm you in any way. This rule applies the moment you file your report.
Not liable for violations of certain rights
In addition, you as a whistleblower are not liable for breaches of confidentiality or copyright, or for defamation resulting from the report, if such was necessary for reporting the violation.
Not liable for going public
Also, the company cannot harm you, and you are not liable for making the violation public, for example, by contacting the media. You enjoy this protection if you reasonably believe that ACM is not properly handling your report.
You also enjoy protection if you go to the media directly and go public with the violation, without filing a report with ACM first. In that case, there needs to be a real or imminent danger to the public interest, for example an emergency situation, or you believe that you will be harmed as a result of your report, or you believe that the violation cannot be properly solved by ACM.
Going to court
Do you feel harmed anyway? Or does the company hold you liable anyway? In that case, you can go to court. The company must then prove that the harm or liability are not the result of your report.
What happens to your report?
Confirmation of receipt
We send you a confirmation within 7 days that we have received your report. If we are not the right authority for your report, we will contact you. With your permission, we can forward your report to the right authority.
Assessing whether or not we launch an investigation
We subsequently assess your report. We may ask you for additional information. If you sent us an email, we will do so by email as well. If you called us, we will call you back. In our assessment, we may include other information, for example information from other reports or from media reports.
We then decide whether or not we launch an investigation into your report. Sometimes, there may be a reason not to launch an investigation, for example if we have already conducted an investigation, or if we need to prioritize more-serious violations.
Informing you about possible investigations
We will let you know if we decide not to launch an investigation into your report. We will do so within three months after receiving your report.
We will also let you know if we do decide to launch an investigation in connection with your report. We will also do so within three months after receiving your report, except if, at that time, we cannot do so because the ongoing investigation will be jeopardized or if the court does not allow us to do so.
Once the investigation has been completed, we will inform you about our findings. If our investigation reveals that a company has violated the rules, we will confront that company with our findings. Sometimes we first give the company the opportunity to resolve the issue themselves. If they fail to do so, we will take action, for example by forcing the company to stop doing something, by warning consumers against this company, or by imposing a fine or order subject to periodic penalty payments on the company. The investigation can also reveal that no violation has been committed.
Your data
We do not share your identity with third parties without your consent. This also applies to details found in your report that refer to you. It is possible that a court requests us to disclose your identity. In such situations, we inform you of such a request in advance. The way in which ACM handles personal data has been laid down in our privacy notice.
If you wish that the company can never find out about your report, for example because you anticipate personal risks, file a report with our Intelligence Unit in an untraceable manner. You disclose your personal details only to ACM’s intelligence investigators in ACM’s Intelligence unit. Other than that, your details will remain confidential.
Free advice regarding whistleblowers
Are you unsure whether or not you are a whistleblower? Or whether we are the right authority for your situation? Or which department of ACM’s you as a whistleblower can contact best for filing a report? Please contact us for free and confidential advice.
You can contact us by calling +31-70-722-2000, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m., option 6 (standard call charges apply). Please indicate that you seek advice about possibly filing a report as a whistleblower. We do not make an audio recording of your call. On the basis of your call with ACM representatives, you decide if and how you file a report.
Dutch Whistleblowers Authority
You may also contact the Dutch Whistleblowers Authority. They can give you free confidential advice about filing a report as a whistleblower. The Dutch Whistleblowers Authority can be reached by phone on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. at +31 88-133-1000. Its postal address is: P.O. Box 85680, 2508 CJ, The Hague, the Netherlands.