EU Whistleblowing Directive – Lithuania

✅ Whistleblowers protection already in place

Lithuania introduced a Whistleblowers Protection law in 2019.

Under this law, Organisations with more than 50 employees were required to introduce an internal reporting channel. Whistleblowers were protected from retaliation and could be remunerated for the information reported.

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📖 Current implementation status

The law has been adopted by the Lithuanian Parliament on December 16th, 2021 and entered into forced on February 15th, 2022.

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🆕 New Requirements

• Reporting Procedures

Whistleblowers can report through internal reporting channels, external or make a public disclosure.

Organisations must provide a feedback to a report within 2 days, and inform the whistleblower on the progress of the provided informations and status of the investigation within 10 days.

In terms of conservation of datas related to a report, relevant data must be kept during 5 months after the last decision or examination of the case. An extension of time can be made in the case where the whistleblower explicitely gave their consent.

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‍• Reporting Obligations & Anonymity

The Law provides some procedural clarifications and also more strict requirements for the timelines (e.g. for shorter feedback periods compared to the Directive)

However, the laws do not provide an option to disregard reports solely on the ground that they are made anonymously. In the view of this new law, anonymous reports should also be investigated to the extent that it is possible.

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• Protection Measures

Whistleblowers are protected against any form of retaliation and Organisations are subject to an obligation of confidentiality regarding the whistleblower’s identity.

The new law also extend the protection to any person related to the whistleblower, including family members, colleagues, or any legal entity linked to the whistleblower in any way.

When a person submitting information about a violation submits information related to a commercial (industrial) secret, professional secret, bank secrecy, confidential information of an institution or information on the private life of an individual, such communication is not considered a commercial (industrial) secret, and the whistleblowerscannot be held liable for their disclosure.

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• Compensation Measures

Whistleblowers reporting valuable information can perceive a remuneration.

The compensation is calculated according to the Lithuanian Government’s procedure which takes into account the proportional damage caused by the reported violation.

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• Reporting Channels

Organisations must set up internal reporting channels following these requirements:

• The confidentiality of the reporting persons is guaranteed
• Clear and accessible informations on the reporting channels and procedures are provided to all employees and are easily available

Units of a legal entity with 250 employees or more must each have a separate internal channel and cannot share it with other departments of the legal entity.