EU CSDDD (Directive (EU) 2024/1760)

The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive obliges very large EU and third-country companies to conduct risk-based human rights and environmental due diligence across their own operations, their subsidiaries and their chains of activities: a due diligence policy and code of conduct, identification and assessment of adverse impacts on reasonably available information and risk factors, prioritisation by severity and likelihood, prevention and corrective action plans with contractual assurances, investment, purchasing-practice change and SME support, last-resort suspension or termination, remediation, meaningful stakeholder engagement, a complaints procedure and notification mechanism, periodic monitoring, an annual statement and, for third-country companies, an authorised representative; supervised by national authorities with turnover-based penalties. As amended by Directive (EU) 2026/470 (Omnibus I): scope above 5,000 employees and EUR 1.5 billion, downstream limited to distribution, transport and storage, monitoring at least every five years, penalties capped at 3 percent, the EU civil liability regime and the climate transition plan removed, compliance from 26 July 2029. It comprises 18 controls organised across 1 domains, and applies in the European Union.