The Bulgaria Whistleblower Protection Law

Bulgaria Whistleblower Protection Law overview

Bulgaria enacted its first-ever whistleblower protection law in January 2023 to transpose the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive’s requirements into national law. The law defines whistleblower protections for anyone reporting violations of either EU law or Bulgarian criminal and employment law, and imposes several obligations on organizations to protect internal whistleblowers. 

The legislation covers all public and private organizations with at least 50 employees, requiring them to establish mechanisms to allow for whistleblower reports and to protect whistleblowers. Employers must also appoint someone to investigate whistleblower claims, and this can be an internal manager or an external third party. 

The law protects whistleblowers and those assisting them from retaliation for submitting a report. It also allows them to report their concerns externally to Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection for Personal Data, which then has legal authority to forward the complaints onto various other Bulgarian regulators depending on the exact concern being raised.

What does the Bulgarian whistleblower protection law cover?

The law adopts the minimum standards for whistleblower protection outlined in the EU Whistleblower Protection Directive. These requirements include: 

• A secure and confidential channel for receiving whistleblower reports must be in place. 
• Acknowledgment of the receipt of every whistleblowing report must be provided to the whistleblower within seven days. 
• An impartial person or department must be appointed to follow up on the reports. 
• Records must be kept of every report received in compliance with confidentiality requirements. 
• There must be diligent follow-up of the report by the designated person or department. 
• Feedback on the follow-up or investigation must be given to the whistleblower within three months of receiving the report. 
• All processing of personal data must be done in accordance with GDPR.

What are the rules outlined in the Bulgarian whistleblower protection law?

Bulgaria’s whistleblower protection law covers all organizations with at least 50 employees. Organizations in Bulgaria’s public sector or private organizations with 250 or more employees were required to establish their whistleblower programs by the end of May 2023; smaller organizations were required to do so by the end of 2023. Organizations with fewer than 250 employees are also allowed to establish a joint whistleblower program in coordination with other small businesses. Financial service firms need to establish an internal reporting system even if they have only one employee.

All covered business must meet the following basic requirements

The law requires all covered businesses to 

• Set up a whistleblowing system with comprehensive whistleblower protections
• Adopt a policy on reporting legal violations and other misconduct.
• Businesses must also train employees on how to use the hotline and on the importance of non-retaliation
• Review the rules for their internal reporting programs at least once every three years. 

Companies are allowed to outsource the management of their hotline to a third-party service provider. They are also allowed to use existing internal reporting channels if the Bulgarian company is part of a larger corporate parent, so long as that parent company’s whistleblower program meets the requirements of the Bulgarian whistleblower law.

Anonymous report intake and management

Whistleblowers are allowed to submit reports in writing, verbally or in person; and the company must preserve a record of every report submitted. Companies are not obligated to investigate anonymous reports under Bulgaria’s law, although they can do so if they choose. That said, if a company receives an anonymous report and that person’s identity later becomes known, they are still eligible for the law’s anti-retaliation protections just like any other whistleblower. Companies also can generally ignore any whistleblower complaint that alleges misconduct more than two years old.

What are the risks of non-compliance?

Companies that violate the Whistleblower Protection Law, either by failing to implement a whistleblower program or allowing retaliation to happen, can be subject to regulatory enforcement and fines of 5,000 to 20,000 Bulgarian lev, the national currency