Reporting Breaches of Legal Provisions Falling within the Scope of the Competences of the FPS Economy

The Act of 28 November 2022 on the protection of persons who report breaches of national or Union law within legal entities in the private sector allows persons who so wish – and who meet the conditions laid out in the law – to report breaches to the competent authorities designated by the king.

By Royal Decree of 22 January 2023, the FPS Economy, SMEs, Self-Employed and Energy has been appointed as the competent authority in the frame of its audit assignments and in the fields covered by the law.

Those concern the following:

• financial services, products and markets and the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing;
• product safety and compliance;
• consumer protection;
• network security (in the energy field);
• breaches relating to the internal market under Article 26, paragraph 2, of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Who can report a breach?

You can report a breach as a whistle-blower if

• you work in the private sector;
• you have obtained information about breaches of legal provisions in a professional context.  

Therefore, that provision mainly concerns:

• the company's employees (current, aspiring, or former)
• Self-employed workers
• shareholders
• volunteers
• trainees
• suppliers, etc.

When are you not a whistle-blower?

Are you a consumer who has noticed a breach of the consumer rights legislation? You can report it through ConsumerConnect https://consumerconnect.be/how-it-works).

Are you a consumer who has a dispute with a company? Call on a mediation service to find a solution to your problem. You will find the list of competent mediators on the ConsumerConnect website (https://consumerconnect.be/procedures/adr).

If you are a company, you can report the identified breach through the Contact point of the FPS Economy (https://pointdecontact.belgique.be/meldpunt/).

How can you report a breach?

You can report a breach of legal provisions related to the scope of the competences of the FPS Economy via the secure platform by clicking the link below.

You can report a breach confidentially and/or anonymously, orally or in writing. You can also download any substantiating documents from this link.

Important: save your unique password, which you will receive when sending your report. This password will allow you to stay informed about the processing of your report or to easily access its contents at a later date.

Report a breach

Under what conditions are you protected as a whistle-blower?

These conditions are stipulated in Chapter 2 of the Act of 28 November 2022.

• Reasonable grounds must lead you to believe that the information reported on the breach is truthful at the time of your report and that it falls within the scope of application of the fields referred to above, concerning the FPS Economy.
• You have made a report either via the internal channel of the company that you are affiliated with, or via an external channel.
• You are also protected in the event of an anonymous report, even if it later transpires that your anonymity has been compromised.

What happens once you have reported a breach?

You will receive an acknowledgement of receipt within seven days of receipt of your report. You will receive detailed feedback within three months of that same date, or within six months if specific circumstances require it. You will also be informed of the result of any investigation performed.

If following an examination of your report it transpires that the FPS Economy is not the competent authority for its processing, we will inform you of that and will forward your report to the federal coordinator of external reports, i.e. the Federal Ombudsman.

We are committed to the confidential processing of any reports using a secure platform to guarantee your anonymity, if you so desire.

That platform allows you to exchange information with the department responsible for your report, in a secure manner and at any time. Your anonymity remains guaranteed if you so choose.

Applicable confidentiality regime

Article 20 of the Act of 28 November 2022 defines the duty of confidentiality applicable to the processing of a report. That includes protecting the identity of the person making a report and any information that may, directly or indirectly, lead to their identification.

Unless the person making the report consents to it, the FPS Economy will reject any request for consultation, explanation or communication, in any form whatsoever, of an administrative document that directly or indirectly reveals the identity of the person making the report.

If the FPS Economy receives information containing business secrets, it cannot use or divulge those business secrets for any purposes beyond that which is necessary to ensure suitable monitoring.

Personal data

The FPS Economy is required to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when managing reports.

Personal data that is not manifestly relevant to the processing of a specific report is not collected or, if it is accidentally collected, is deleted without undue delay.

The name, position and contact details of the person making the report, the person concerned by the report, and any other person covered by the protection and support measures, including, if applicable, their company number, are safeguarded until the reported breach is time-barred.

Protection, support and appeals for the whistle-blower

For support or information on accompanying measures for whistle-blowers, you can contact the Federal Institute for Human Rights.

Federal Institute for Human Rights

Liability of the persons reporting a breach

Whistleblowers who report in good faith and respect the protection conditions (see above), do not incur any legal liability in relation to that report, provided they had reasonable grounds to believe that reporting such information was necessary to reveal a violation in accordance with the law.

The exemption from liability is broad and covers in particular:

• The disclosure of restricted information, the confidentiality of which was required by contract or by a legal, regulatory or administrative provision;
• Civil, criminal or disciplinary actions, and professional sanctions.

However, that exemption from liability does not apply in certain cases (articles 5 and 27 of the law of 28 November 2022), namely if the alert:

• concerns national security;
• contains classified information
• contains information covered by medical secrecy or by the professional secrecy of lawyers;
• contains information covered by the secrecy of judicial deliberations;
• violates the rules of criminal procedure;
• violates laws relating to the obtaining of information or access to such information where such obtaining or access constitutes an autonomous criminal offence.

If in doubt, contact the Federal Institute for the protection and promotion of Human Rights (FIRM/IFDH). The FIRM/IFDH will be able to provide you with legal advice about that subject.

FPS Economy contacts

General tel.: 0800 120 33

Federal coordinator for external reports

The Federal Ombudsman's Centre for Integrity takes on the role of federal coordinator and, in this regard, acts as a facilitator for the reporting procedure for whistle-blowers.

Federal ombudsman’s centre for integrity