FRANCE—Whistleblowing system suspended

 

A recent decision of the Court of Appeal of Caen shows how complex it can be for a multinational group to implement a whistleblowing system globally in order to comply with SOX.

In line with CNIL requirements, the affiliate of a U.S.-based parent company had implemented a policy and reporting form in its standard authorization AU004, in particular by limiting the scope of the whistleblowing line to accounting, financial, banking and bribery matters.

However, to the employee representatives, these adaptations made to the global system appeared  to be cosmetic changes, since, by connecting to the ethics line supplier’s website, employees could access the global system and were invited to report any matter of concern whatsoever as any employee of other countries in the world. Moreover, the website, instead of discouraging anonymous reports, recommended preserving anonymity, in contradiction to what was stated in the documents handed over to the French employees. In addition, the French documents did not clearly present the rights of suspected employees.

Hence, on 23 September, the Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the lower court to suspend the whistleblowing system.

This decision shows how essential it is to go beyond the mere adaptation of first-level documents to French legal requirements while implementing a whistleblowing hotline. It is indeed necessary to ensure that French employees do not get access on the group’s intranet or otherwise to documents or tools which would be contrary to the French requirements, especially those relating to the scope of the system and those relating to anonymous reports, which are the most sensitive issues.