EU court fines five countries for lacking whistleblower protection

The EU Court of Justice on Thursday fined five countries for failing to adopt rules to boost protection for whistleblowers who expose fraud, tax evasion, data breaches and other misdeeds.

The court handed a fine of 34 million euros ($36.7 million) to Germany, while the Czech Republic was obliged to pay 2.3 million euros and Hungary 1.75 million euros. Fines of up to 500,000 euros were handed to Luxembourg and Estonia.

An agreement among EU member states in 2019 brought in EU-wide rules requiring companies to set up internal channels for whistleblowers and shield them from reprisals such as sackings, demotion and even litigation.