Suciu Popa is glad to announce that it has partnered with Whistleblower Software, a Danish software developer, to provide a GDPR compliant web-based interface, especially developed to cater for the Whistelblower Directive requirements and which can be easily customized to the actual needs and features of any particular organisation. Whistleblower Software offers an online whistleblower channel that can be accessed from anywhere, and that allows reporting on a confidential or anonymous basis. The Whistleblower Software solution is hosted in Europe, with the primary server in Frankfurt, Germany, and a back-up setup across Europe, hosting providers being audited regularly and having certifications such as ISO 27001 and ISO 27018.

By entering into this exclusive partnership, Suciu Popa is able to provide clients and interested organisations with an integrated, fully customized compliance program which oversees the full implementation of the Whistelblower Directive, from designing policies and rules for reporting within the organization, setting-up investigation protocols, to customizing and providing a turn-key industry leading software solution, with full support from our technical partners. The aim of this compliance program is to accurately implement an internal reporting and investigation tool, ensuring that information is dealt with in a professional and pre-emptive manner and does not fall into the wrong hands, while externalizing data integrity and confidentiality, thereby offering a trustworthy solution for this initiative. 

For more info and a short demo on our solution offering go to http://www.suciupopa.ro/whistleblower-solution/

Suciu Popa is a top full-service law firm founded by legal experts sharing a common professional ethos: commitment to provide value for clients through deep understanding of their legal needs, robust partner involvement and beat-the-firm legal solutions. Suciu Popa is drawing on the strong reputation of its partners, built during over 20 years of acting for major strategic investors and investment funds, local entrepreneurs and foreign corporations, public authorities and international financial institutions in a variety of cutting-edge transactions and landmark dispute resolution cases. Suciu Popa is constantly recognized as a leading law firm by major international publishers such as Legal 500, Chambers & Partners, IFLR1000, Benchmark Litigation, GAR100, with clients saying about Suciu Popa that: “[they are] creative, easy to communicate with, and have very good perspective of the business”, “are unbelievably efficient at providing extremely precise and valuable input”, “they provide expert advice and routinely make legal suggestions that provide us additional protection often on things we hadn't thought of” and“[are] incredibly responsive and sympathetic to the clients’ needs and know how to handle difficult situations”

Whistleblower Software has set out to define how the next generation of whistleblowing systems and service should be like and to set new standards in this area. Based in Denmark, Whistleblower Software consists of experienced tech-entrepreneurs, who specialize in building simple, secure and scalable solutions for companies and whistleblowers all around Europe.

EU Directive 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law entered into force on 16 December 2019 and until 17 December 2021 member states are obliged transpose it into their national laws.

The EU Directive imposes strict deadlines for implementation on organizations, companies with more than 250 employees having the obligation to already have in place a fully functional whistleblower channel this year. Companies having between 50-250 employees are recommended to first deal internally with whistleblowing reporting and, by 2023, to have in place full-fledged whistleblowing platforms and tools.

The EU initiative followed major scandals of recent years, from LuxLeaks to Panama and Paradise Papers, Dieselgate or Cambridge Analytica. Such events have focused public attention and European Commission action on how wrongdoing inside organisations both in the public and private sector can seriously harm public interest and safety, national and even EU-wide finances. It was found that many of these cases have come to light thanks to people speaking up when they encounter wrongdoing in the context of their work or profession.

In order to protect the identity and interests of whistleblowers, the Whistelblower Directive requires reporting to be processed and stored in a secure, GDPR compliant manner, whistleblowers being granted access to confidential reporting mechanisms and being guaranteed with appropriate feed-back from their organization. The integrated service delivered by Suciu Popa in partnership with Whistleblower Software caters to all ethical, legal, public, internal and managerial responsibilities around whistleblowing, providing an integrated solution which ensures confidentiality, accountability and clear work & investigation procedures.