The internal reporting channel duty in Latvia
Latvia transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1937 with Trauksmes celšanas likums (Saeimā pieņemts 2022. gada 20. janvārī; izsludināts "Latvijas Vēstnesī" 2022. gada 3. februārī, Nr. 24B). Aizstāj 2018. gada Trauksmes celšanas likumu. (Whistleblowing Law (adopted by the Saeima on 20 January 2022)). Below is what the national act itself says, with the sources, so your counsel can check every line.
2022-02-04
Public-person institutions regardless of the number of employees, and private-law legal persons with 50 or more employees, Article 5(1): "Publiskas personas institūcijas neatkarīgi no nodarbināto skaita, kā arī privāto tiesību juridiskās personas, kurās ir 50 vai vairāk nodarbināto, izveido iekšējo trauksmes celšanas sistēmu." Article 5(2) removes the 50-employee threshold entirely for private-law legal persons operating in the financial and capital market sector and in the prevention of money laundering, terrorism and proliferation financing, and for legal persons whose activity is governed by the EU acts listed in the Cabinet regulations issued under Article 2(2) (which cover, among others, transport safety and environmental protection).
No separate deadline, the duty applied immediately from entry into force on 4 February 2022, including to entities with 50, 249 employees. Latvia did not use the Directive's 17 December 2023 deferral; the repealed 2018 Whistleblowing Law had already required internal systems for entities of this size.
Anonymous reports are not accepted as whistleblower reports. Article 6(1) requires the report to identify the person, "norādot tajā ziņas par sevi (vārds, uzvārds, adrese un, ja nepieciešams, citas ziņas, kas palīdz sazināties ar viņu)", or to use the official whistleblower report form; electronic submissions via latvija.gov.lv or trauksmescelejs.lv verify identity through online forms. The Law contains no provision on anonymous reporting at all, so an anonymous submission does not qualify for whistleblower status or the Law's protections. The Law protects identity (confidentiality and pseudonymisation), not anonymity.
External reporting goes to the sector-specific "kompetentā institūcija", the public institution responsible, wholly or partly, for the matter reported, including a supervisory or controlling body, an investigating authority or the prosecutor's office. Since 1 March 2026 the national whistleblower contact point (trauksmes cēlēju kontaktpunkts) is the Korupcijas novēršanas un apkarošanas birojs (KNAB, Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau), Article 8(1). KNAB runs www.trauksmescelejs.lv, routes reports, handles reports where no competent institution can be identified, issues guidelines for building internal systems, and "pārbaudīt un uzraudzīt, vai tiek ievērots šā likuma regulējums" (checks and supervises compliance with the Law). Before 1 March 2026 the contact point was the Valsts kanceleja (State Chancellery). Administrative-offence proceedings are conducted by the Valsts darba inspekcija (employment matters) or the Valsts policija (Article 20).
There is no administrative penalty for failing to establish an internal whistleblowing system, the Law attaches none to Article 5. The three administrative offences are: Article 17, causing adverse consequences to a whistleblower, a relative or a related person, natural person 6, 140 fine units, official 8, 140 units, legal person 14, 2,800 units; Article 18, knowingly providing false information through the whistleblowing mechanism or publicly, 6, 140 units; and Article 19, obstructing whistleblowing or attempting to, including obstructing the submission or examination of a report, natural person 3, 70 units, official 4, 70 units, legal person 7, 1,400 units. One fine unit is EUR 5 (Administratīvās atbildības likums, Article 16(2)), so the maximum for obstructing reporting is EUR 7,000 for a legal person, and the maximum for retaliation is EUR 14,000 for a legal person.
Yes, expressly for the private sector. Article 5(1), final sentence: "Privāto tiesību juridiskajai personai iekšējās trauksmes celšanas sistēmas darbību var nodrošināt trešā persona", a private-law legal person may have its internal whistleblowing system operated by a third party.
Private-law legal persons with 50, 249 employees may build a joint internal whistleblowing system (Article 5(3)); the same applies to municipal institutions with fewer than 50 employees, provided the joint system is separated from and independent of the municipality's own role as a competent authority. Staff must be told about the system when they start work/practice, and easily accessible information about it and about reporting to the competent authority must be available at the workplace (Article 5(4)). Acknowledgement of receipt within 7 days plus a decision on whether the submission is recognised as a whistleblower's report, notified within 3 days of that decision (Article 7). The Law was substantially amended by the law of 12 February 2026, in force 1 March 2026, moving the contact point to KNAB, widening the list of prohibited detriments, and adding Article 16.1 on compensation for damage caused by knowingly false reporting.
One channel for a group that operates in more than one member state
A group with entities in Latvia and elsewhere in the EU does not get one law, it gets one per country: different rules on anonymous reports, different authorities, different deadlines and penalties. We set the channel up once and configure it per entity against each national act, from the same verified reference you are reading.