Corporate due diligence (part 1/2): six years on since French due diligence legislation came into force and essential fundamentals remain wanting

Featured image of the article Corporate due diligence (part 1/2): six years on since French due diligence legislation came into force and essential fundamentals remain wanting
With the first wave of due diligence related lawsuits now appearing in the  courts, mind RH has attempted to gauge just how much the 2017 landmark due diligence legislation has really changed the situation for the major corporate groups that come within the legislation’s scope. While almost all the relevant companies now comply with the mandatory publication of a vigilance plan, the real impact of the law remains limited for several reasons ranging from minimal compliance levels, to restricted appropriation (primarily just the CSR teams), and again to a paucity of jurisprudence.
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On 24 April, exactly 10 years after the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh that saw a textile factory collapse with the loss of 1,100 lives, the Ethique sur l’étiquette collective (a founding member of which is the CFDT trade union centre) organised a gathering in Paris of several NGOs and political actors, the goal of which was to discuss the progress made on corporate regulation since that fateful day a decade ago. Symbolic of the destruction that results from insufficient monitoring and contro

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