At the end of January, the prosecutor’s office in Lille dismissed the complaint lodged against Auchan (French supermarket chain) for non-respect of its ethical commitments in the Rana Plaza affair. In April 2013 more than 1,100 died and thousands more workers were injured when the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh that several international clothing names used in the manufacture of their garments, collapsed. One year later three NGOs, Collectif Ethique sur l’étiquette, Peuples Solidares-ActionAid France, and Sherpa filed a complaint against the group “for misleading commercial practices of a nature that misled French consumers as to the social conditions surrounding the manufacture of the products they were selling”. The prosecutor dismissed this criminal complaint. The government has committed to introducing a law on the 'duty of care by multinationals' as regards the respect of fundamental rights across the globe in the upcoming weeks.
The complaint. Auchan has repeatedly pleaded ignorance over work and safety conditions at the Rana Plaza factory where its own brand clothing range “In Extenso” was manufactured. After the complaint was lodged, the prosecutor’s office in Lille opened a preliminary investigation in May 2014 (c.f.
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