The obligation on large French companies to draw up and implement a plan covering subsidiaries and suppliers, enforced through civil liability.
The French law of 27 March 2017 requires companies above certain workforce thresholds to draw up a vigilance plan identifying risks of serious harm to human rights, health, safety and the environment arising from their own activities, those of their subsidiaries, and those of subcontractors and suppliers with which they have an established commercial relationship. Its reach comes from two drafting choices. It crosses the corporate veil, reaching companies distinct from the one under the duty, which company law had previously forbidden, and it attaches ordinary civil liability to breach, so a person harmed can plead the failure of vigilance as fault. The statute preceded the European due diligence directive by seven years and served as its model, which makes it the source of the most developed case law on questions common to both regimes, notably how precise a plan must be and who has standing to sue.
Law no. 2017-399 of 27 March 2017 on the duty of vigilance of parent and instructing companies requires a vigilance plan from companies employing, including subsidiaries, at least five thousand staff in France or ten thousand worldwide, and opens a liability action where the duty is breached.
loi sur le devoir de vigilance, plan de vigilance, duty of vigilance, loi de 2017