Directive on the Duty of Vigilance: Implications for French Companies

In their latest article for Finascope, Muriel Goldberg-Darmon, Guillaume Guérin, and Pierre Wolman discuss the impact of the June 2024 European directive on due diligence for French companies. The directive aims to prevent negative human rights and environmental impacts from large companies, their subsidiaries, and business partners. It expands the obligations established by the 2017 French law, lowering the employee threshold and introducing stricter penalties. This shift will likely lead to increased litigation, especially as a new regulatory authority will oversee compliance and impose fines for violations.