Important amendments to the Bulgarian Protection of Persons Who Report or Publicly Disclose Information on Breaches Act

We summarise the most important amendments in this alert, which obliged persons and entities should take into account in their daily work on whistleblower protection:

1. The possibility for private companies with 50+ employees, and companies carrying out activities of public interest as included in the annex to EU Directive 2019/1937 (EU Whistleblower Protection Directive), to use an internal whistleblowing channel established by the economic group they are part of, has been eliminated, regardless of the number of their employees.
2. The personal scope of the domestic law has been expanded: protection will now be granted to volunteers, paid or unpaid interns, as well as individuals who are about to enter into a contract with a respective company for the provision of any type of services, in cases where the information was obtained during the selection process or other pre-contractual relations.

3. The two-year limitation for the reporting period has been abolished. Under the previous version of the law, reports concerning violations that occurred more than two years prior were considered out of scope. The statute of limitation period has now been removed.

4. For verbally submitted whistleblowing reports under this law, it is now possible (with the consent of the whistleblower) for the report to be documented via a recording on a durable medium, allowing its retrieval.

5. A new obligation has been introduced for Municipal Councils to adopt a Code of Ethics for municipal councillors. Municipalities that are obliged persons under this law must submit an annual report to the Personal Data Protection Commission. These reports shall include information

• on the number of reports filed for unethical behaviour;conflicts of interest, and corruption by municipal councillors;
• other violations of the Code of Ethics;
• actions taken in response.

This information must be made publicly available on the website of the respective Municipal Council.