France was the first state to impose a sustainability due diligence duty on its companies through a law of 27 March 2017 called a “duty of vigilance”. But its only quite recently that the first case law was handed down, outlining the contours of the duty of vigilance and in particular the procedural aspects of enforcement. Given the importance of the topic in light of the recent adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D) in June 2024 and the initiative of the European Commission with its Omnibus proposal and its partial adoption, revising not only CS3D but also CSRD and the Taxonomy Regulation, it seems interesting to outline the major aspects of the French caselaw on the duty of vigilance. Indeed, even though the CS3D will harmonize sustainability due diligence obligations in Europe, being a mere directive, the major procedural questions will still depend on Member State law. Consequently, the French experience may be of interest to other Member States.
Iris M. Barsan (Wed,) studied this question.