On 14 September 2022, the EU Commission published its proposal for a Regulation introducing a ban on the placing and making available on the EU market or export from the EU market of products made using forced labour (see press release here). Following on from Commission President von der Leyen’s announcement of the proposed ban in her State of the Union Address last year, under the Proposed Regulation, products found to have been made using…
On 23 February 2022, the EU Commission published its proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence obligations, which aims to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour throughout global value chains. Scope The new due diligence rules will apply to: all EU limited liability companies with 500+ employees and EUR 150 million+ in net turnover worldwide (“Group 1”); and other limited liability companies operating in defined high impact sectors (e.g. the textile, mining and…
On 19 October 2021, the EU Commission published its 2022 Work Programme (the “Programme“), which sets out the key goals that the EU Commission hopes to achieve in 2022. Chief amongst these is a desire to make “A Europe Fit for the Digital Age”, with a key proposal to achieve this being a possible “European Chips Act”. In the Programme, the EU Commission has stated that it will publish a proposal for a European Chips Act (the…
On 15 September, during the 2021 State of the Union Address, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the European Commission’s intention to introduce a ban on the import of products made with forced labour into the EU market. In her Address, the Commission President noted that there are “25 million people…who are threatened or coerced into forced labour” and that “doing business around the world…can never be done at the expense of people’s…
As part of Europe’s economic recovery, the EU Commission has acknowledged the trading bloc’s technological and strategic dependencies will need to be addressed. The EU Commission identified a number products imported into the EU on which the EU is highly dependent in notably sensitive sectors. The EU Commission also performed six in-depth reviews on the origin of strategic dependencies and their impact on importation. The EU Commission concluded that it will continue to work on…
Governments around the world continue to signal that companies should prepare for a future where responsible sourcing programs that include supply chain human rights due diligence become a legal obligation. On February 20, 2020, the European Commission published a report titled “Study on due diligence requirements through the supply chain” (“the EC Study”) which examined the need for a EU-level regulation of corporate due diligence obligations aimed at identifying, preventing, mitigating and accounting for human…