When does the complaints channel arrive into effect?

The entry into force of the whistleblower channel law occurred on March 13, 2023 (20 days after its publication in the BOE), at which time all 7starhd subjects bound by this rule had to begin taking the necessary measures to comply. with it, specifically, implement the internal complaints channel, complying with the requirements and characteristics established in the Law, and adopting the necessary measures to guarantee the confidentiality of the complainants and people affected by the complaint, as well as those to guarantee the protection of complainants against possible retaliation.

It should be noted that the European Directive that transposes Law 2/2023, Directive (EU) 2019/1937 or Whistleblowing Directive , into the legal system, came into force on December 17, 2021, at which time all Member States should have it. transposed into its legal system, however, not all of them arrived on time, as in the case of Spain, which has been delayed two years in its creation, approval and entry into force.

Likewise, given that there are still Member States that have not transposed the aforementioned Directive, the deadline to do so has been extended until December 17, 2023, although this does not mean that the deadline to implement the complaints channel in Spain has been extended until that date, as we will see below.

 

The whistleblowing channel law establishes maximum deadlines for the implementation of the internal whistleblowing channel in organizations; Depending on your number of employees, your turnover volume or your ownership, there are different dates for the complaints channel .

 

Before the approval and entry into force of the whistleblowing channel law and the Whistleblowing Directive, there were already companies that had implemented this internal information system (as the whistleblowing channel is actually called in the regulations); in some cases called a whistleblowing channel and in many other cases an ethical channel, since it is a key element of any compliance program or plan for the prevention of criminal offenses in companies. In addition, Law 10/2010 on the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism also included the implementation of a reporting channel for the subjects bound by it.

However, no law regulated what these reporting channels should be like and in the vast majority of cases they were implemented following the guidelines of international standards.