Wolf Theiss’ Post

🚨🌐 The EU Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee has approved the revised Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). This crucial step follows EU member states' agreement last week on a scaled-back version of the law, with an increased employee and revenue threshold for companies. The CSDDD creates a set of rules that require companies to address adverse impacts on human rights and the environment within their operations and supply chains. For the next steps, the legislation will move forward for a full plenary vote in the European Parliament. #CSDDD #SustainableSupplyChains #EURegulation 📜✅

Eduardo Silva de Freitas and Xandra Kramer's latest publication on "The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: PIL and Litigation Aspects" is now live on Conflict of Laws .net. The piece explores private international law and civil procedure in the newly approved #CSDDD and its implications for cross-border litigation and access to justice in cases of corporate human rights and environmental abuses. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/exH9wWPC #Sustainability #SupplyChain #HumanRights #GlobalGoals

Big news in the world of supply chain management! 🌍 A panel of EU lawmakers has just given the green light to a watered-down version of a supply chain audit law. 📜✅ This law aims to hold companies accountable for human rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains. However, the new version of the law is less stringent than initially proposed. 📉 It now only applies to large companies and public entities, leaving out SMEs. While this may be seen as a relief for smaller businesses, it raises questions about the overall effectiveness of the law. 🤔💼 Interestingly, the law also includes a 'due diligence' clause. This means companies will be required to identify, prevent, and mitigate any potential risks in their supply chains. 🕵️♂️🔍 The law is expected to be in full effect by 2024, giving companies ample time to adjust their operations accordingly. ⏳🔄 What are your thoughts on this development? Do you think the law will be effective in its current form? Or should it have been kept in its original, more stringent form? Let's discuss! 🗣️💬 #SupplyChain #EUlaw #HumanRights #EnvironmentalProtection #DueDiligence #RiskManagement #BusinessEthics 👓 Read more: https://lnkd.in/eNv_9P5T

A couple of weeks ago the European Council finally approved the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, following months of intense discussions. Member states will now have two years to implement the CSDDD into national law. Our BDO Legal Guide to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive breaks down the key aspects and implications for businesses in the EU. Click here to learn more! https://bit.ly/3Rdp5Ip #CSDDD #Sustainability #BDOLegal Marinka van Falier Leen Lefevere

ICYMI, RCP's policy brief "What the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Says About Contracts," is now available on SSRN. In addition to analyzing the #CSDDD, the brief provides practical guidance on (re)designing commercial contracts to ensure effective human rights and environmental due diligence (#HREDD). https://lnkd.in/eZ35u5N4

My latest publication with Xandra Kramer on "The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: PIL and Litigation Aspects" is now live on Conflict of Laws .net. This piece explores private international law and civil procedure in the newly approved #CSDDD and its implications for cross-border litigation and access to justice in cases of corporate human rights and environmental abuses. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eEKU7NSt #Sustainability #SupplyChain #HumanRights #GlobalGoals

🚨 Evolving HREDD Laws: What Businesses Need to Know 🚨 A new study by the British Insititute of International and Comparative Law written by authors, Dr Irene Pietropaoli, Dr. Jasmin Elliott, and Dr Sofía González De Aguinaga, PhD, focuses on the human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) laws in Europe. Find our takeaways below: ⬇️ 🔎 The insides of companies are already shifting significantly to adapt to the business and human rights laws that we have on the books! Companies are changing how they govern and oversee their HREDD obligations. 🤝 Examples include escalating human rights issues to senior level, establishing specialized committees, integrating human rights into board governance and implementing internal mechanisms to ensure compliance. 👏 And this is true even for those companies that are not in scope! A number of companies are getting ahead of the game, and are foreseeing future HREDD developments - as well as more generally how HREDD is changing business practice. 🔑 The next step is ensuring that company departments (e.g., sustainability, legal, supply chain, risk management and procurement) share the implementation of HREDD between them - rather than working in silos. Other areas for companies to advance on include stakeholder engagement, grievance mechanisms, pushing beyond social audits and third party certifications, and embracing a shared responsibility approach with suppliers. Read our full summary here: https://lnkd.in/eztNtBZy

We are thrilled to announce that the first consultation version of the European Model Clauses (#EMCs) is published! 🎉🎉 The EMCs are a set of model contract clauses that aim to improve human rights and environmental (HRE) performance in global supply chains in alignment with the German Supply Chains Due Diligence Act (#LkSG), the proposed EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (#CS3D), and similar human rights and environmental due diligence (#HREDD) legislation. The clauses are the product of months of diligent work by the European Working Group (European WG), made up of legal practitioners, including RCP Team members Sarah Dadush (French team), Daniel Schönfelder (German team), and Michaela Streibelt (German team). The EMCs are now open for feedback until December 15 and are available on the Erasmus School of Law website (link below!). Why are the #EMCs important? The LkSG and the draft CS3D identify contracts as an important preventive measure for addressing adverse HRE impacts. Furthermore, Article 12 of the draft CS3D states that the European Commission will prepare guidance on model contractual clauses. Given these developments, the EMCs aim to be a useful reference point for effective due diligence-aligned contracting, as well as for the eventual guidance by the Commission. The EMCs include clauses on, for example: - Joint commitment to cooperate in carrying out HREDD - Information sharing - Responsible purchasing practices (e.g., pricing, modifications, providing assistance, responsible exit) - Rightsholder-focused provisions on stakeholder engagement - Internal grievance mechanisms - Human rights remediation The EMCs move away from the traditional, one-sided model of contracting towards a model of shared-responsibility contracting where both parties to the contract, the buyer (e.g. brands and retailers) and the supplier (e.g. manufacturer), contractually commit to carry out ongoing and risk-based HREDD in cooperation with one another. This shift to shared responsibility is critical as traditional, one-sided contracts that place the entire responsibility for upholding HRE standards on suppliers are ineffective for avoiding adverse HRE impacts. The input received during the current consultation period will be integrated into the next version of the EMCs, which will be released for a second round of consultations in Summer of 2024. A final version of the EMCs is expected to be published by Q4 2024-Q1 2025. 😎 To read the EMC draft and submit feedback, follow the link below. https://lnkd.in/dnVNRymG To access the full RCP Toolkit, please visit our website at: responsiblecontracting.org #bizandhumanrights #responsiblecontracting #CSDDD #ethicalbusiness #modelcontracts #businessandhumanrights #supplychainsustainability

📣 Statement on the adoption of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive 📣 In our new blog, "The European Supply Chain Law is Coming After All – What Can We Make of the Compromise?", Nora Aboushady, Tilman Altenburg, Inga Carry, Jann Lay, Melanie Müller, Mark Schrolle, Frauke S., Lea Strack, Tevin Tafese, and Rainer Thiele highlight the key aspects of the recent #CS3D compromise. The analysis compares the final compromise with the earlier trilogue agreement and the German Supply Chain Act. "In summary, the CS3D compromise reduces the number of covered companies, excludes the financial sector, and limits downstream supply chain responsibilities compared to the original CS3D trilogue agreement. These changes, together with the weakened enforcement of climate transition plans and the absence of civil liability provisions, highlight several controversial areas and underscore the contentious nature of the final CS3D compromise." Read the full statement here: https://lnkd.in/dTVPhUHJ #csddd #csr #duediligence #EU #humanrights #sustainability

🚦 EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive ("CS3D") Will Become Reality - you have read all about the compromise text adopted by the Council on 15 March and today's vote by the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament 🔎 But what is CS3D really about? 👉 Check out our Mayer Brown insight, in which we delve into the substantive requirements of CS3D - we read the fine print to give you the gist of compliance expectations that will apply as from 2027! ❗ Stay tuned for more alerts on the topic #compliance #CS3D #duediligence #businessandhumanrights