On 23 March France’s National Assembly adopted the draft law that looks to oblige France’s largest companies to take reasonable care in order to pre-empt human rights violations and environmental damage both at their subsidiaries located abroad and along their sub-contracting and supply chains. This is the second time the National Assembly has read the text with the first being a year ago. In the intervening period between the readings the Senate rejected the text and intends to do so again at its next reading.
The text the National Assembly adopted on 23 March is the same as that which it voted upon a year earlier on 30 March 2015 (c.f. article No. 8993). The draft law creates an obligation for businesses with headquarters located on French territory and employing at least 5,000 staff (in total and including all subsidiaries) in France, or at least 10,000 worldwide to establish and implement a plan comprising reasonable due diligence measures that identify and pre-empt violations of both human rights and serious environmental damage, within its subsidiaries as well as within the sub-contractors and suppliers with whom the French companies have ‘an established business relationship’.
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