The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive aims at identifying, ending, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for negative impact on human rights and environment in the company’s operations, their subsidiaries, and their value chains. The Directive also ensures that large entities adopt business strategies compatible with limiting global warming in line with the Paris Agreement, as well as introduces duties for directors of companies in overseeing the implementation of due diligence processes.

Such a regulatory effort reflects the increasing complexity and global nature of supply chains. The proposal includes a transition period, with larger companies obliged to comply after three years and smaller companies after four or five years respectively, depending on the number of employees and turnover.

The legislative proposal was initiated by the Commission in 2022, with the provisional deal outlining the scope, liabilities for the non-compliant companies, penalties, and a complete list of rights and prohibitions that companies should respect being reached in early 2024. The co-legislators adopted the final version of the Directive, which will enter into force upon publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

Deutsche Börse Group will be in scope on application of the directive, although financial undertakings are exempt from the downstream part of the due diligence obligations.

For further information on Deutsche Börse Group’s positioning on the matter, find our statements and position papers under Publications.